By Adedapo Adesanya
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other petroleum products valued at N749.6 billion were exported by Nigeria in the first three months of 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed in its Foreign Trade Statistics Report.
It was revealed that Nigeria’s gas export earnings in the quarter under review appreciated by 15.9 per cent and 46.2 per cent when compared to the N646.9 billion and N512.7 billion earned from the export of the same commodities in the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2021, respectively.
Giving a breakdown of gas exports, the stats agency disclosed that in the first quarter of 2022, the country earned N655.9 billion and N93.7 billion from the export of natural gas and other petroleum gases, respectively.
The NBS noted that natural gas was the second most exported commodity in the first quarter of 2022, accounting for 9.2 per cent of Nigeria’s total export in the period; while other petroleum gases ranked as the fourth most exported commodity, accounting for 1.3 per cent of Nigeria’s total export.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, LNG export fetched the country N573.8 billion, while the value of other petroleum gases export stood at N73.1 billion; ranking second and fifth most exported commodity, and accounting for 9.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent of total exports, respectively, in the period.
In the first quarter of 2021, the export value of LNG and other petroleum gases stood at N455.7 billion and N56.9 billion, respectively; accounting for 15.7 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively, of total exports, and ranking as the second and fourth most exported commodity in the first quarter of 2021.
In addition to gas exports, the country also earned N12.7 billion in the export of propane in the first quarter of 2022, dropping by 39.4 per cent compared with N20.9 billion recorded from the export of the same commodity in the fourth quarter of 2021; while the first-quarter figures represented an increase of 3.6 per cent compared with the N12.3 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2021.
The NBS stated that: “In the first quarter of 2022, Nigeria’s total trade stood at N13.001 trillion, this was higher than the value recorded in the fourth quarter of 2021 (N11.707 trillion) and the value recorded in the corresponding period of 2021 which stood at N7.860 trillion. Total exports were N7.100 trillion of which re-exports stood at N115.80 billion, while total imports stood at N5.901 trillion.”
