US becomes net exporter of crude oil to Nigeria

The United States exported more crude oil to Nigeria than it received for the first time in February and March 2025, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has said.

The EIA, on Tuesday, said during this period, refinery maintenance in the US East Coast drove down US demand for crude oil imports, including imports from Nigeria, and the relatively new Dangote refinery in Nigeria drove up Nigeria’s demand for inputs, including crude oil it imported from the United States.

“This marks the first time that the United States was a net crude oil exporter to Nigeria, and structural changes to crude oil trade between the countries suggest this dynamic could occur more frequently,” the energy agency said.

The EIA said Nigeria imported crude oil from the United States in February last year, after the Dangote refinery began processing crude in January.

It said Nigeria is more commonly considered a source for US crude oil imports.

“In nearly every year between 1973, when our country-level crude oil import data series began, and 2011, when an increase in domestic crude oil production reduced the need for light, sweet crude oil from Nigeria and other countries, Nigeria ranked among the top five sources of US crude oil imports. More recently, Nigeria ranked ninth among US crude oil import sources in 2024,” it said.

It explained that US gross exports of crude oil to Nigeria reached 111,000 barrels per day (b/d) in February 2025 and 169,000 b/d in March.

Over the same period, it said US gross crude oil imports from Nigeria fell, from 133,000 b/d in January to 54,000 b/d in February and 72,000 b/d in March.

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These declines, it said, primarily reflected maintenance at the Phillips 66 Bayway refinery in New Jersey, reducing demand for crude oil imports.

“As the Bayway refinery returned to normal operations in April and the Dangote refinery experienced unplanned maintenance from early April through mid-May, US crude oil imports from Nigeria increased and US crude oil exports to Nigeria declined. The Dangote refinery is scheduled to reach full crude oil distillation capacity of 650,000 b/d this year; trade press reports indicate it is currently running at about 550,000 b/d,” it added.

The EIA said Dangote will likely continue processing imports of crude oil if the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) does not increase crude oil deliveries beyond the 300,000 b/d it currently delivers.

Revenue from crude oil sales to the Dangote refinery is denominated in naira, Nigeria’s domestic currency. Because the naira has weakened relative to the US dollar, the NNPC has an economic incentive to sell its crude oil on international markets.”

In addition, the EIA said the NNPC’s ability to increase deliveries may be limited because crude oil production by the NNPC and its partners has generally declined, falling from a peak of 2.4 million b/d in 2005 to 1.3 million b/d in 2024.