Nigeria’s crude export to the United States increased from 358,000 barrels per day to 364,000 bpd after the Dangote Petroleum Refinery reduced its daily fuel production between April and May 2025.

Quoting the Energy Information Administration, Reuters reported that US crude and fuel inventories all fell last week, while crude imports from Nigeria hit their highest level in nearly six years.

“Crude imports from Nigeria rose by 358,000 bpd to 364,000 bpd, marking the highest import figure from the African nation since October 2019. The jump in imports comes as Nigeria’s 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery has faced an unplanned outage from April 7 to May 11,” the report said.

Crude inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels to 440.4 million barrels in the week ending May 23, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 118,000-barrel rise.

It was learnt that US crude exports rose during the week by 794,000 bpd to 4.3 million bpd, helping push inventories lower. Oil prices were said to have risen slightly after the EIA reported a surprise draw in stockpiles, but were still trading in negative territory.

Meanwhile, the 650,000-bpd Dangote oil refinery in Nigeria is expected to operate its gasoline-making unit at reduced rates through October after a string of issues in recent months.

The refinery, which opened last year, is currently running its 204,000 bpd gasoline-producing residual fluid catalytic cracking unit at below its capacity.

It was reported that the unit was shut from April 7 to May 11 after part of it suffered damage, and was shut again from May 15 to May 25 due to a mechanical issue. A claim that was denied by officials of the refinery, who said the refinery has never stopped the loading of fuel.

The Dangote refinery started producing diesel and aviation fuel in January 2024 and petrol in September. It is widely expected to reshape global fuel markets by forcing closures of smaller plants in Europe and elsewhere.

According to reports, some downstream units at the plant are yet to start commercial operations, such as a sulfuric acid alkylation unit, scheduled to start up in mid-June, and a polypropylene unit that is set to come online by the end of June.

Meanwhile, the refinery’s crude processing unit has been running at about 85 of its throughput since mid-March. It had earlier planned to reach full capacity before June.