Nigeria has invested a huge sum of $1.39 billion in purchasing crude oil in the first quarter of 2026.
This has demonstrated an increased dependency on foreign feedstock in spite of increasing domestic refining capacity.
According to figures released by the Central Bank of Nigeria, crude oil imports experienced a huge increase from $340 million in Q4 2025 to $1.39 billion in Q1 2026, a 308.82% rise compared to last quarter.
This increase was experienced at a time when Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Africa’s biggest refinery, is increasing its operation but sourcing crude oil from international markets to keep up production.
Statistics from the apex bank showed that crude oil made up 81.8 per cent of total imports of crude, gas, and refined petroleum in the country, with total imports valued at $1.70 billion.
Unlike this trend, refined petroleum imports fell sharply by 87.5% to $310m from $2.48bn in the previous quarter. This fall indicates a trend towards the local production of fuels due to higher local refinery production.
These falling fuel imports were one of the major reasons behind the improving Nigeria’s international position, according to the CBN.
At the same time, exports of refined petroleum grew by 20.3% to $2.37bn, indicating Nigeria’s gradual transformation from being a fuel importer to an exporter mainly due to production at Dangote refinery.
In general, Nigeria showed better trade results in Q1 2026. The goods account surplus increased to $5.95bn. The total amount of exports amounted to $15.49bn compared to $13.36bn in the previous quarter. At the same time, imports decreased by 17.69% to $9.54bn.
This has seen the current account surplus of Nigeria rise to $4.98bn, representing an improvement from $1.40bn recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Despite this, problems still exist in the supply of crude oil locally. Figures from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission revealed that local refineries have imported only 28.5 million barrels of crude oil of the 68.7 million barrels offered in the first quarter.
According to industry insiders, the rising imports of crude oil in Nigeria have been attributed to cost factors and different qualities of crude oil available in the local market.
As the country continues to boost its refining capacity, the current figures indicate that closing this gap is vital.
