The United States, regarded as the world’s largest importer of consumer goods, purchased $578.78 million worth of crude oil from Nigeria during the first quarter of 2026.
Although the figure remains substantial, it reflects a decline of 15.06% compared to the same period in the previous year.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis show that the U.S. imported Nigerian crude valued at $681.40 million in the first quarter of 2025.
The figures further reveal that the United States bought 7.84 million barrels of crude from Nigeria within the first three months of 2026, compared with 8.44 million barrels over the same period in 2025.
This represents a year-on-year reduction of 0.59 million barrels, or 7.03%, according to reports by Punch Newspaper.
Monthly data also showed a sharp drop in exports between February and March 2026.
Imports from Nigeria fell from 4.64 million barrels in February to 1.54 million barrels in March, indicating weaker short-term supply or demand conditions.
The Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) value of Nigerian crude exports also dropped significantly, declining from $345.33 million in February to $114.49 million in March.
A similar downward trend was recorded in the customs value figures, which exclude freight and insurance expenses.
Nigeria’s year-to-date customs value for crude exports stood at $561.69 million in 2026, representing a decline of $102.10 million, or 15.38%, from the $663.79 million recorded in 2025.
Despite the overall reduction in African exports to the United States, Nigeria retained its position as one of the leading suppliers of crude oil from the continent.
Nigerian light sweet crude grades also continued to play a major role in U.S. refining operations and remained a key component of America’s energy imports from Africa.
However, overall African oil exports to the United States increased to $1.66 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up from $1.10 billion during the same period in 2025.
Nigeria’s share of total African crude imports into the U.S. market nevertheless declined from about 61.7% in the first quarter of 2025 to 34.8% in the corresponding period of 2026.
The decline points to growing competition from other African suppliers, particularly Libya and Ghana.
According to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, disruptions to pipeline infrastructure significantly affected crude production during the review period.
“The Trans Forcados Pipeline outage, resulting from a leak at the Keremor axis, negatively impacted production volumes, leading to curtailments across several assets from February 20 to March 25, alongside other operational challenges,” the company stated in its report.