According to the UK’s Department for Business and commerce factsheets, overall commerce in goods and services between the UK and Nigeria reached £6.7 billion in Q3 2023. This is an increase of £136 million over Q3 2022. One of Nigeria’s most popular exports to the UK is refined oil, which is only second in value to its staple product, crude oil.
According to the research, UK exports to Nigeria fell by 21.2%, totaling £357 million in current prices, over the four quarters leading up to the end of Q3 2023.
However, while Nigeria’s imports from the UK decreased, its exports increased by 1.2%, totaling £32 million, compared to the same time in 2022.
The report also highlighted the top five items sold by the UK to Nigeria, as well as the top five goods sold by Nigeria to the United Kingdom.
Nigeria’s top five exports to the UK are crude oil, gas, aircraft, metal ores and scrap, and refined oil. Aside from crude oil, which has become Nigeria’s major export, accounting for 62.6% of all goods sent to the UK, refined oil ranked second, accounting for 17.8% or £334.5 million of all products exported to the UK.
Nigeria has the lowest oil production capability among OPEC nations, with only 6,000 barrels per day, according to the OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2023, as reported by Nigerian newspaper the PUNCH.
Since 2018, the country’s oil production capacity has been steadily declining, from 33,000 to 6,000. This has sparked worries regarding the country’s continued import of petroleum products, despite the fact that the government owns the refineries.
However, the newly inaugurated Dangote refinery, owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is expected to expand the country’s production capacity; however, this increase would be routed through and into the private sector.
$20.5 billion. The Dangote refinery, Africa’s largest, has a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. It intends to produce 250,000 barrels of gasoline per day and 100,000 barrels each of gasoline and diesel.
The refinery would generate oil for both local and international markets. The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has sanctioned 150,000 petrol stations to accept fuel from the newly built private Dangote refinery.
Nigeria aims to restore its dilapidated refinery, the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (KRPC) in Northern Nigeria. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, stated that the project will be completed in time for operations to commence in the fourth quarter of 2024.
