S&P Global Energy has urged West African market participants to create credible regional fuel-price benchmarks to reduce the distortions caused by reliance on external pricing references. The conference was organised around the theme, “Funding West Africa Infrastructure and Distribution to Create a Transparent Market for Regional Price Benchmarks.” “Those who are going to create the true benchmarks for this region” are the market participants, she said. However, she said West African stakeholders would have to actively use regional price assessments if they wanted to create a market that accurately reflected local conditions. Blei said a credible West African benchmark would emerge only when industry players moved beyond expressing support for the idea and began using regional price references in real transactions.