Nigeria’s traditional position as a crude oil supplier to the United Kingdom is undergoing a notable shift, with refined petroleum products emerging as Britain’s largest goods import from the country.
Figures contained in the latest Nigeria Trade and Investment Factsheet published by the UK Department for Business and Trade show that refined petroleum products accounted for 47.5 per cent of the UK’s total goods imports from Nigeria in the 12 months to March 2026.
During the period, the UK imported refined petroleum products worth £674.5 million from Nigeria, significantly above the £438.9 million spent on Nigerian crude oil.
The development marks a sharp change in the composition of Nigeria’s exports to Britain, where crude oil has historically occupied the dominant position.
Crude oil represented 30.9 per cent of the UK’s goods imports from Nigeria during the review period, while natural gas ranked third at £179.3 million, accounting for 12.6 per cent.
The shift was driven partly by a steep fall in British purchases of Nigerian crude.
The report showed that UK crude oil imports from Nigeria dropped by 64.3 per cent compared with the preceding 12-month period.
Natural gas, however, moved in the opposite direction, with imports increasing by 6.9 per cent.
Other Nigerian products also featured among Britain’s imports, although on a much smaller scale.
Coffee, tea and cocoa products generated £29.3 million, representing 2.1 per cent of total goods imports, while processed fertilisers were valued at £25.2 million, or 1.8 per cent.
The changing structure of Nigeria-UK trade is particularly striking because refined petroleum products dominated trade in both directions.
While Nigeria supplied Britain with £674.5 million worth of refined petroleum products, the UK exported an even larger value of the same category to Nigeria.
British exports of refined petroleum products to Nigeria stood at £725.6 million, making the commodity the UK’s largest goods export to the country and accounting for 51.2 per cent of total UK goods exports to Nigeria.
That figure, however, represented a 44.7 per cent decline from the previous year.
Other significant British exports to Nigeria included toilet and cleansing preparations valued at £61.6 million, textile fabrics at £48.6 million, general industrial machinery worth £40.3 million, and mechanical power generators valued at £32.9 million.
Despite the changing composition of trade, the overall value of economic exchange between Nigeria and the UK weakened during the period.
Total trade in goods and services stood at £7.3 billion in the four quarters ending March 2026, down 3.4 per cent, equivalent to £258 million, from the corresponding period a year earlier.
UK exports to Nigeria fell marginally by 0.9 per cent to £5.3 billion, while British imports from Nigeria recorded a considerably sharper decline of 9.3 per cent to £2 billion.
Of the £2 billion worth of Nigerian goods and services imported by the UK, goods accounted for £1.4 billion, or 69.7 per cent, while services contributed £616 million, or 30.3 per cent.
The downturn was reflected across both categories, with UK goods imports from Nigeria falling 11.3 per cent year-on-year, while services imports declined by 4.3 per cent.
The latest figures therefore point to a changing trade relationship in which crude oil is no longer the dominant Nigerian product entering the British market, while refined petroleum products have assumed a more prominent position.
The figures also highlight the complex nature of the two countries’ petroleum trade, with both Nigeria and the UK remaining significant players in the movement of refined petroleum products despite the overall decline in bilateral trade.
