Nigeria earns N525bn from LNG, propane exports in 12 weeks

Yinka Oladele

The National Bureau of Statistics record has revealed that Nigeria earned N524.928 billion from the export of gas in different forms in the first quarter of 2021.

In its First Quarter 2021 Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics, NBC noted that the value of Nigeria’s gas exports in the quarter under review stood for an increase of 1.98 per cent compared with the N514.741 billion worth of the commodity exported in the corresponding period last year.

It also revealed that the first quarter 2021 gas export earnings were also 22.1 per cent higher than the N429.565 billion earned from the export of the same commodity in the fourth quarter of 2020.

In the quarter in question, the export of these gas commodities accounted for 18.05 per cent of Nigeria’s total export earnings in the period.

This was a departure from the first quarter of 2020 and fourth quarter of 2020 figures, where gas exports accounted for 12.6 per cent and 13.45 per cent, respectively, of the country’s total export earnings.

NBS stated that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) provided 15.67 per cent of Nigeria’s total exports in the first quarter of 2021, with the country earning N455.666 billion from its exports.

Other petroleum gases followed with the export of N56.997 billion worth of the commodity, representing 1.96 per cent of the country’s total export in the period under review; while liquefied propane export stood at N12.265 billion, representing 0.42 per cent of Nigeria’s total exports in the first quarter of 2021.

In comparison, in the first quarter of 2020, LNG export stood at N480.248 billion; other petroleum gases export N27.056 billion and liquefied propane export fetched the country N7.44 billion; representing 11.76 per cent, 0.66 per cent and 0.18 per cent, respectively, of Nigeria’s total export in the same period.