Spain was Nigeria’s top export destination in the third quarter of 2022, according to foreign trade data recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
India has for years topped the list of Nigeria’s top export destinations. However, Spain displaced India and received N873.62 billion worth of export goods from Nigeria, representing a 14.72% share of all exports.
In particular, this figure represented a 15.6% decrease in exports to Spain in the second quarter, despite a year-on-year increase of 39.3%. Included in the export from Nigeria to Spain is N293 billion non-oil exports.
More about the data: The next largest recipient of exports was India, which was Nigeria’s top destination in the second quarter of 2022. Exports to the subcontinent fell a significant 43.7% from the second quarter, amounting to N619.22 billion.
- Rounding out the top five export destinations are France, which received 7.25% of all exports, worth N430.4 billion and an increase of 34% from the second quarter; the Netherlands, which receives 7.09% of exports, but decreased 54% from the second quarter to N420.41 billion, and; Indonesia received a 7.00% stake at N415.16 billion, a 34% decrease from Q2 2022.
- Top five countries represented 46.49% of all exports totaling N5.93 trillion, and oil and gas products constituted a controlling interest.
- In terms of regions, Europe continued to lead as Nigeria’s top export destination with around N2.6 trillion in trade in Q3.
- Africa was the second largest export destination for Nigeria with around N812 billion, while America was third with N723.3 billion.
Crude oil dominates: Four of the top five export destinations had crude oil products accounting for at least 90% of all exports:
- India (90.3%), France (96.1%), the Netherlands (94.3%) and Indonesia (97.8%). 66.4% of all Spanish imports from Nigeria were based on crude oil.
- While Nigeria currently produces and exports less than ideal, it is clear that there remains a vibrant market for Nigerian crude, particularly in Asia and Europe. Both regions concentrated 29.8% and 45.62% of all oil and gas exports.
- It would not be remiss to attribute the dependence on Nigerian crude in these regions to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
- In addition to Europe, the United States and African countries such as the Ivory Coast and South Africa are also important export destinations from Nigeria.
- African countries have crude oil or related products that make up almost all of Nigeria’s imports, with almost 99% of all South Africa’s imports from Nigeria being oil and gas.
Dynamics of Russia Ukraine: In 2021, the European Union imported more than USD 108 billion worth of energy from Russia alone. The region got two-fifths of all its natural gas and more than 25% of its crude oil from the Eastern European giant.
- The war saw sanctions imposed on Russia by most European countries and increased vandalism of the Nord Stream pipelines has meant that Europe has had to look elsewhere for oil and gas, with Nigeria becoming a beneficiary.
- Europe’s import from Nigeria totaling N8.9 trillion in the first 9 months of this year already exceeds the N7.4 trillion reported in all of 2021.
- It is also no surprise that among Nigeria’s top export destinations, 5 out of the top ten are from Europe with a combined total of N2.2 trillion just this quarter for crude oil exports alone.
- Italy, Portugal, France and the Netherlands are other export destinations for Nigeria in addition to Spain.
Less imports: Despite the readily available market, Nigeria’s oil and gas imports fell 18.5% from the second quarter of 2022, a loss of around N1.24 trillion, an indicator of the country’s anemic production.
- Year-over-year, the country’s crude oil production has fallen 23.6%, an average of 1.2 million barrels per day from 1.6 million barrels per day in the third quarter of 2021.
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