Nigeria Earns N998.5bn From Petrol Exports In 6 Months

Nigeria Earns N998.5bn From Petrol Exports In 6 Months - Business

September 25, 2026

by Nse Anthony-Uko

Nigeria’s earnings from Premium Motor Spirit exports rose more than sixfold year-on-year to N998.5bn in the first half of 2026, as increased production by the Dangote refinery and disruptions to global supply routes reshaped the country’s petroleum trade.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), showed that African buyers accounted for N621.72bn, or more than 60 per cent, of the total value of Nigeria’s PMS exports during the period.

In the second quarter alone, petrol exports were valued at N546.02bn, making PMS Nigeria’s seventh-largest export commodity. It ranked behind crude oil, valued at N12.91tn; jet fuel; natural gas; urea; other petroleum gases; and gas oil.

The latest figures mark a sharp reversal for Nigeria, which was still heavily dependent on imported petrol barely a year earlier.

In the first quarter of 2025, PMS did not feature among the country’s leading export products. During the same quarter, Nigeria spent N1.76tn importing petrol. Exports returned in the second quarter of that year at a modest N85.83bn.

By the second quarter of 2026, however, the value of PMS exports had risen to N546.02bn, representing an increase of more than six times over the corresponding quarter of 2025.

Analysts attributed the turnaround mainly to the ramp-up of the Dangote refinery, which has increased the volume of refined products available for domestic consumption and export.

An investment research analyst, Abeeblahi Rufai, said Nigeria’s weak PMS exports in early 2025 were largely due to the absence of surplus products for foreign markets.

He explained that Dangote’s output was initially being absorbed by the domestic market, while operational challenges at the refinery also constrained production.

According to him, outages at the refinery’s Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking unit, as well as obligations linked to the naira-for-crude arrangement, further limited the volume available for export.

However, Rufai said the situation changed as the refinery improved its operations and expanded output.

He added that the war involving Iran and the resulting disruption of Middle Eastern supply routes created another opportunity for Nigerian petroleum products in the African market.

The disruptions affected shipping routes and raised concerns around supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for global oil and refined-product shipments.

Rufai said African buyers that had previously depended heavily on suppliers such as the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Saudi Aramco, and Indian and Omani refiners began looking towards Nigeria.

The shorter shipping distance from Nigeria, he noted, made Dangote’s products more attractive to buyers on the continent, particularly when compared with supplies from the Middle East and Asia.

“Once the refinery had enough product to export, the proximity to African markets gave Dangote a significant freight advantage,” the analyst said in comments reported by Punch.

An analyst at CardinalStone Securities, Tomiwa Adeniji, said the rise in exports reflected a broader improvement in Nigeria’s refining position.

He noted that the country’s refining capacity had increased from approximately 400,000 barrels per day, operating at about one per cent utilisation, to 1.1 million barrels per day at roughly 62 per cent utilisation.

Adeniji described the development as evidence that Nigeria had moved from being primarily a crude oil exporter and refined-product importer to becoming a net exporter of refined petroleum products.

The change has significant implications for Nigeria’s trade balance. For years, petrol imports accounted for a substantial share of the country’s foreign exchange outflows, even though Nigeria remained one of Africa’s largest crude oil producers.

The commissioning and ramp-up of the Dangote refinery have begun to alter that pattern by supplying a growing share of the domestic market while creating capacity for exports.

An economist and Chief Executive Officer of Economic Associates, Dr Ayo Teriba, described the development as a natural progression in the refinery’s operations.

He said the facility initially focused on import substitution by supplying petrol and other refined products to the Nigerian market.

According to Teriba, the refinery now supplies more than half of Nigeria’s domestic PMS demand and has moved into the export of petrol, diesel and jet fuel.

These products, he noted, were previously among the major items on Nigeria’s import bill.

The increase in PMS exports also comes amid efforts by the Federal Government to expand domestic crude oil production and deepen indigenous participation in the oil sector.