Despite its status as Africa’s top crude oil producer, Nigeria imported crude oil worth N1.19 trillion in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting the nation’s struggle to meet local refining needs due to inadequate domestic supply.
This was revealed in the latest Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for Q1 2025.
The report listed crude oil imports—classified as “Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude”—as Nigeria’s third most imported commodity for the quarter, accounting for 7.7% of total imports. Only gas oil (N1.83tn) and motor spirit (N1.76tn) surpassed it.
A breakdown of the data showed that the United States supplied the bulk of these imports, delivering crude worth N726.84 billion—around 61% of the total. Angola followed with N223.58 billion, and Algeria with N122.37 billion.
This trend suggests that both modular and large-scale refineries, including the Dangote Refinery, are relying more heavily on foreign-sourced crude due to limited local feedstock.
Although the NBS report didn’t identify specific refineries, the data underlines broader structural issues in aligning domestic crude production with local refining capacity.
Altogether, gas oil, petrol, and crude oil imports totaled more than N4.78 trillion in Q1 2025, over 30% of Nigeria’s total imports for the period. Total imports stood at N15.43 trillion, up 4.59% year-on-year but down 7.02% from Q4 2024. Mineral fuels led imports with a combined value of N4.97 trillion, making up 32.23% of the total.
The report also noted that the United States ranked as Nigeria’s third-largest import partner during the quarter, with trade totaling N1.42 trillion. Crude oil accounted for more than half of this figure.
The NBS report stated, “China remains Nigeria’s highest trading partner on the import side in the first quarter of 2025, followed by India, the United States of America, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates.
The most traded commodities imported during the quarter were Gas oil, Motor spirit ordinary, Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude, Cane sugar meant for sugar refinery, and Durum wheat (Not in seeds).”
Recall that many Nigerian modular refineries had been unable to access locally produced crude despite an increase in national output to over 1.4 million barrels per day. Refinery operators have urged the Federal Government to prioritize domestic supply before exports.
The Crude Oil Refinery-owners Association of Nigeria (CORAN) confirmed that refinery owners have not received crude allocations for months under the Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligation (DCSO) framework.
“Local refiners, especially the modular refineries, have not been getting crude, I mean zero allocation, under the DCSO or any other special arrangement,” said Eche Idoko, CORAN’s publicity secretary.
The DCSO, a critical part of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, mandates the allocation of domestic crude to local refiners. However, about 500,000 barrels per day earmarked for this purpose are reportedly being diverted to international markets for foreign exchange.
To address the issue, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) banned the export of such crude. NUPRC Chief Executive Gbenga Komolafe stated that, “Diverting crude oil meant for local refineries is a violation of the law.”
He warned that henceforth, export permits would be denied for cargoes designated for domestic refining.
Despite this, CORAN insists that challenges persist, and some members now import crude to survive.
“We have resorted to private arrangements to source products. This process has been herculean, forcing most of the modular refineries to produce below full capacity.
“So, we consider the directive by the NUPRC quite heartwarming, and we hope the IOCs will be cooperative. And none of the modules have benefited from the Naira for crude either.
Only the NMDPRA have made attempts to reduce the cost of licensing, for which we are most grateful. We tend to have seen more incentives to refined petroleum importers than CORAN members who are investing heavily in the economy and helping our naira against foreign exchange.”
He also appealed directly to the government, “We are appealing to Mr President and the government’s economic team to please give attention to local refineries, especially modular refineries.”
According to the NUPRC, eight Nigerian refineries, including Dangote Refinery, require a total of 770,500 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil between January and June 2025. These include:
- OPAC Refinery (10,000 bpd) in Delta State
- WalterSmith Refinery (5,000 bpd) in Imo State
- Duport Midstream (2,500 bpd) and Edo Refinery (1,500 bpd) in Edo State
- Aradel Refinery (11,000 bpd) and the old Port Harcourt Refinery (60,000 bpd) in Rivers State
- Warri Refinery (125,000 bpd) in Delta State
- Kaduna Refinery (110,000 bpd) in Kaduna State
The NUPRC emphasized that the 770,500 bpd allocation represents 37% of Nigeria’s projected average daily production of 2,066,940 bpd for H1 2025.
The Commission expressed confidence in meeting this target, noting that its Project One Million Barrels, launched in October 2024, has significantly boosted output.
Despite these efforts, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria claimed that the daily 500,000 barrels allocated to local refineries are still being exported.
This claim follows the commission’s revelation that Nigeria exported crude and petroleum products worth N12.96 trillion in Q1 2025. This figure represents 62.89% of total exports for the quarter, even as local refiners remain starved of feedstock.
Although crude oil exports fell by 16.35% from Q1 2024 and by 6.01% from Q4 2024, it remained Nigeria’s top export, well ahead of LNG, petroleum gases, urea, and cocoa.
Top buyers during the period were India, the Netherlands, the United States, France, and Spain—underscoring the country’s heavy dependence on foreign markets for crude sales.
