- The United States imported $578.78m worth of Nigerian crude oil in the first quarter of 2026, marking a 15.06% decrease from the $681.40m recorded during the same period in 2025.
- Crude export volumes to the US fell to 7.84 million barrels in Q1 2026, down from 8.44 million barrels a year earlier, with a sharp monthly decline noted between February and March.
- The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited attributed recent production dips to pipeline disruptions, specifically a leak on the Trans Forcados Pipeline that curtailed output for over a month.
The United States has significantly scaled back its financial commitment to Nigerian crude oil in the opening months of 2026.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Eko Hot Blog gathered that the value of imports on a Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF) basis dropped by over $102m year-on-year.
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While Nigeria remains a key African supplier, its dominant share of the continent’s oil exports to the US plummeted from 61.7% in early 2025 to just 34.8% in Q1 2026, facing stiff competition from emerging regional suppliers like Libya and Ghana.
The sharpest decline occurred between February and March 2026, where import volumes crashed from 4.64 million barrels to a mere 1.54 million barrels.
This downward trend is mirrored in domestic reports from NNPC Limited, which showed a significant drop in total crude sales for March.
Experts suggest that while the US still values Nigeria’s light sweet crude grades for its refining system, a combination of shifting global supply patterns and persistent domestic evacuation challenges is beginning to take a toll on trade volumes.
NNPC Limited has acknowledged these setbacks, pointing to infrastructure vulnerabilities as a primary cause.
The company reported that a leak at the Keremor axis of the Trans Forcados Pipeline led to nearly five weeks of production curtailments starting in late February.
Despite these operational “setbacks,” the state oil firm maintains that restoration plans are underway to stabilize output and resolve the logistics constraints that have hampered the country’s ability to meet international demand during the first quarter.
