- of Canada's 2025 crude imports came from Nigeria (Canada Energy Regulator)1
- 10.9%
- of Nigeria's 2025 crude export earnings — more than the US (CBN)2
- 8.75%
Trade flows
The Canada Energy Regulator reports that Nigeria supplied 10.9% of Canada's crude oil imports in 2025, with most of the remainder coming from the United States.1 From Nigeria's side, the Central Bank records Canada at 8.75% of 2025 crude export earnings, about US$2.76 billion — a larger share than the United States at 6.02%.2
Why an oil exporter imports Nigerian crude
In our assessment the explanation is geographic: Canada's production is concentrated in the west and consists largely of heavy crude, while refining capacity on the Atlantic coast has no pipeline connection to it. Eastern refineries therefore buy waterborne light crude, for which Nigerian grades are a natural fit.
Limits of the evidence
Trade data establish the flow but not the receiver. No source we have opened names the Canadian refinery or refineries taking Nigerian cargoes, so we name none. If you can point us to a primary source, please tell us.
Nigerian export statistics record the declared destination and are published by value; importer statistics record arrivals by volume. The two rarely match exactly. See the notes on the markets overview.
The qualities of the grades named on this page are in the Nigerian crude grade database. How such cargoes are actually contracted — by tender, under term contracts or through an established trader — is explained in how Nigerian crude oil is sold, and what a buyer should prepare before approaching any seller is in the international buyer centre.