Oil producers exported crude oil and other petroleum products worth N12.96tn in the first quarter of 2025, even as domestic refineries continue to suffer from poor feedstock supply, The PUNCH reports.
This is despite the slow implementation of the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation and the Domestic Crude Refining Requirement, which aim to ensure sufficient crude supply to indigenous refineries.
The N12.96tn represents 62.89 per cent of the country’s total export value for the period under review, according to the latest Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics and obtained by our correspondent on Thursday.
The statistics report said Nigeria achieved a trade surplus of N5.17tn in the first quarter of 2025, representing a 51.07 per cent increase from the N3.42tn recorded in the previous quarter.
It noted that total trade for Q1 2025 reached N36.02, a 6.19 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
It read, “The merchandise trade balance for Q1 2025 remained positive at N5,172.31bn, indicating an increase of 51.07 per cent compared to the value recorded in the preceding quarter.”
A breakdown of the data shows that crude oil exports dropped by 16.35 per cent compared to the N15.49tn recorded in the same period of 2024, and they also declined by 6.01 per cent from N13.78tn in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Despite the dip, crude oil remained the country’s dominant export commodity, far outpacing other products such as liquefied natural gas, petroleum gases, urea, and cocoa beans.
The NBS report also listed India, the Netherlands, the United States, France, and Spain as Nigeria’s top crude buyers for the period under review, highlighting continued reliance on foreign demand amid challenges in the domestic downstream sector.
Recall that local refiners under the auspices of the Crude Oil Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria have repeatedly cried out over their inability to access crude oil locally for their refineries, saying oil producers prefer selling crude to international traders in dollars.
The government introduced these initiatives to help boost domestic refining capacity, as part of efforts to bring down the price of petroleum products and eliminate scarcity
The Publicity Secretary of the Crude Oil Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria, Eche Idoko, said in a statement on Monday that Nigeria’s transition to a more robust and self-reliant petroleum refining sector had been fraught with contradictions and policy ambiguities, despite the ambitious provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.
According to him, the government had also failed to implement the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation and the Domestic Crude Refining Requirement. Idoko stressed that although the DCSO and DCRR theoretically ensured supply security for local refineries, enforcement remained weak.
On the naira-for-crude deal, Idoko said restricting the deal to only the Dangote refinery defeats the intent of the policy. While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has restated its regulatory authority to enforce implementation, an analysis from the NBS report showed that India bought the highest volume of crude and with a total value of N1.41tn, followed by crude exports to the Netherlands worth N1.36tn.
Third on the list is France with N1.28tn worth of crude imports from Nigeria. Similarly, Spain and the United States of America imported crude and other petroleum oil products worth N989.54bn and N779.39bn, respectively.
Within the continent, South Africa bought the highest volume worth N704.73bn, Ivory Coast bought N403.997bn, while Senegal got crude volume worth N327.89bn. Also, Ghana bought volumes of the black viscous hydrocarbon worth N50.55bn.
Further analysis of the NBS data showed that other oil products, excluding crude, generated N4.48tn in export revenue in Q1 2025. This marked a significant 134.24 per cent increase from the N1.91tn recorded in Q1 2024, and a 32.07 per cent rise from N3.39tn in Q4 2024.
The report read, “Crude oil exports in Q1 2025 were valued at N12.955.03tn; the value decreased by 16.35 per cent from N15.486.63tn in Q1 2024 and by 6.01 per cent from N13.783tn in Q4 2024.
“Other oil product exports in Q1 2025 stood at N4,475tn, showing an increase of 134.24 per cent rise from N1.91tn in Q1 2024 and as well as increase of 32.07 per cent increase from N3.39tn in Q4 2024.”
“In Q1 2025, the top five trading export partners were India, the Netherlands, the United States, France, and Spain. The most exported commodities included crude oil, liquefied natural gas, other petroleum gases in a gaseous state, Urea, whether or not in aqueous solution, and Standard quality Cocoa beans. Further analysis shows that Nigeria’s export trade continued to be dominated by crude oil in the first quarter of 2025, valued at N12.95tn, representing 62.89 per cent of total exports.”
Meanwhile, the value of other petroleum products imported into the country in the first quarter of 2025 dropped significantly to N3.79tn, marking a steep 42.20 per cent decline from the N6.55tn recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.
The figure also represents a 21.19 per cent reduction compared to the N4.81tn spent on similar imports in the fourth quarter of 2024, a sharp contraction that underscores both changing demand dynamics in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.
