Nigeria Oil Production

Bonny Light, Qua Iboe and the other grades

Nigeria exports a family of light, sweet crudes from the Niger Delta, typically around 30–36° API with less than 0.2% sulphur. They yield a lot of gasoline and diesel, so they usually price close to or above Brent. The main grades are:

• Bonny Light: the flagship grade and Nigeria's component in the OPEC Reference Basket. It averaged $72.30 per barrel in 2025 and $86.45 in July 2026, according to OPEC.
• Qua Iboe: a light, very low-sulphur grade exported from the Qua Iboe terminal in Akwa Ibom state.
• Forcados, Brass River and Escravos: other western and eastern Delta streams, plus newer offshore grades such as Agbami, Bonga and Egina.

In July 2026 Bonny Light, Forcados and Qua Iboe sold at small premiums of $0.01–0.08 per barrel to Dated Brent, with an overhang of unsold Nigerian cargoes, OPEC reported. For the quality terms, see sweet vs sour crude.

Production versus the OPEC+ quota

Nigeria joined OPEC in 1971. For most of 2021–2024 it could not produce its OPEC+ allocation at all: output fell to 1.14 million b/d in 2022, the lowest in decades, while its quota was well above that. OPEC+ cut Nigeria's required production to 1.5 million b/d from 2024. NUPRC data show Nigeria met that level in August 2026 for the fourth month in a row, and OPEC's secondary sources put it slightly higher, at 1.57 million b/d. Nigeria has long argued that condensate should not count towards quotas. Read more in our OPEC+ explainer.

Theft, sabotage and outages

Much of Nigeria's onshore oil moves through long pipelines across the Niger Delta creeks, where crude theft, illegal refining and sabotage have been chronic. The Trans Niger Pipeline, which carries about 180,000 b/d to the Bonny export terminal, has been repeatedly shut by leaks and attacks; an explosion in March 2025 disrupted flows again. Losses peaked in 2022, when force majeure on major terminals pushed output to its low. Better security and pipeline surveillance contracts since late 2022 have helped production recover.

International oil companies leave the onshore

The majors have been selling onshore and shallow-water assets to Nigerian companies and focusing on deepwater fields, which are safer from theft. Shell sold its onshore subsidiary SPDC to the Renaissance consortium, a deal completed in March 2025, and ExxonMobil sold its shallow-water business to Seplat Energy. The 2021 Petroleum Industry Act overhauled the sector: it turned NNPC into a commercial company, created the NUPRC and the downstream regulator NMDPRA, and set aside 3% of operating costs for host-community trusts.

The Dangote refinery

For decades Nigeria exported crude and imported most of its fuel, because its state refineries barely worked. The Dangote refinery near Lagos, with a design capacity of 650,000 b/d, is changing that. It was commissioned in May 2023, began producing diesel and jet fuel in early 2024 and gasoline in September 2024. Since October 2024 NNPC has supplied it with some crude paid for in naira, but deliveries have fallen short, and Dangote buys many cargoes abroad: in July 2025 US crude, mainly WTI, made up about 60% of its intake, according to Kpler. During the 2026 Gulf disruption, Dangote raised fuel output and exports to West African markets, and in October 2025 it announced plans to expand to 1.4 million b/d.

For oil markets, Dangote matters in two ways: it absorbs Nigerian and Atlantic Basin light crude that would otherwise be exported, and it cuts European gasoline exports to West Africa. For more on price drivers, see what moves oil prices and the top oil producing countries.