FG Exports ₦‎17 Trillion Crude To US, Others In Nine Months

The Federal Government exported crude oil approximately worth N17tn to seven foreign countries over a period of nine months, Saturday PUNCH has gathered.

Recall that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, mandated International Oil Companies to supply crude oil to the 650,000-capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

The spokesperson for the NUPRC, Olaide Shonola, had said the commission was intervening to ensure the local sale of crude to Dangote and other refineries in the country.

Shonola made the disclosure following a claim by the Chairman of the Dangote Group that the IOCs were not ready to sell crude to the refinery.

In an interview with CNN, Aliko Dangote had said the IOCs in Nigeria were used to exporting crude for foreign exchange and they were not ready to stop.

Dangote said though the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd was doing its best to supply feedstock to the refinery, the IOCs wanted to sell outside the country.

“The NNPC is doing its best, but some of the IOCs, they are struggling to give us crude, everybody is used to exporting and nobody wants to stop exporting,” he stated.

The business mogul said Africa was not growing because it sells raw materials to the Western world and buys the same as finished goods.

“Africa is not going the way it should because we export raw and import finished goods. It doesn’t matter what it is, even if it is gold or whatever, raw material is always priced at a ridiculous amount compared to finished goods,” Dangote said.

However, investigation by Saturday PUNCH showed that between July 2023 and March 2024, Nigeria exported crude oil worth N16.9tn to foreign countries which include the United States of America, France, India, Indonesia, Canada, Spain and The Netherlands.

This worth of crude oil exported by Nigeria to the countries during the nine-month period was contained in the various Commodity Prices Indices & Terms of Trade reports released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics for the third and fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024.

The report for Q1 2024 released by the NBS on Monday, June 24, 2024, stated, “The All-Commodity Group Import Index for Q1, 2024 on average increased by 0.51 per cent. The increase can be attributed to the changes in import prices of vehicles, aircraft.

“The All-Commodity Group Export price index increased on average by 0.39 per cent in Q1, 2024. The increase was majorly attributed to changes in the prices of mineral products, products of the chemical and allied industries, plastic, rubber etc.”

The report further read, “The major export destinations of Nigeria in Q1, 2024 were France, Spain, The Netherlands, India and The United States of America.”

The report said, “In Q1, 2024, Nigeria’s export trade with France was valued at N2,125.03bn accounting for 11.09 per cent of total export. Major commodities exported during the period were Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude worth N1,863.84bn, Natural Gas valued at N226.94bn and flour and meals of soya beans worth N26.23bn.

“Spain remained one of our top export destinations in the first quarter of 2024 with total exports amounting to N2,023.55bn, representing 10.56 per cent of total exports. The largest exported commodity was petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude valued at N1,721.44bn, this was followed by natural gas at N275.53bn and superior quality cocoa beans worth N11.21bn.”

It added, “In the first quarter of 2024, Nigeria’s export trade to the Netherlands stood at N1,695.44bn representing 8.85 per cent of total exports. The main export commodity to the Netherlands in the quarter under review was petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude worth N1,498.80bn.

“This was followed by superior quality cocoa beans valued at N112.00bn, standard quality cocoa beans valued at N58.29bn and others. In the first quarter of 2024 total exports to India were valued at N1,611.39bn or 8.41 per cent of total exports.

“Exports to India were largely dominated by petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude worth N1,304.89bn, natural gas worth N170.75bn, Soya beans (excluding seeds) valued at N61.11bn and others.

“In the first quarter of 2024, total exports to the United States of America stood at N1,311.16bn accounting for 6.84 per cent of total exports. The largest exported commodity to the United States was petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude worth N1,208.20bn.

“This was followed by flours and meals of soya beans valued at N28.21bn, Urea, whether or not in aqueous solution worth N20.33bn and others.”

Going by the report, the total worth of crude oil Nigeria exported to the five countries in the first three months of 2024 is N7.59tn.

But according to the report for fourth quarter of 2023 issued by the NBS in May 2024, Nigeria exported crude oil worth N1.755tn to The Netherlands between October and December, 2023.

During the same period, the country also exported crude worth N990.53bn to India, N814.44bn worth of crude to Spain, N902.08bn crude to Canada and N699bn worth of crude to France, giving a total value sum of N5.2tn for the five countries.

Similarly, the report for the third quarter of 2023 issued by the NBS in December 2023 showed that between July and September last year, Nigeria exported N953bn worth of crude oil to Spain, N907bn worth of crude oil to India, N902bn worth of crude oil to The Netherlands, N737bn worth of crude oil to Indonesia, and N678bn crude oil to France, giving a total sum of N4.17tn for the three months.

Source:- Punchng