- of Nigeria's 2025 crude export earnings — the largest share (CBN)1
- 10.46%
- Nigerian crude imported by Spain in 2025 (Cores)2
- 6.24 Mt
- to Spain in 2024, the largest European importer (EIA estimate)3
- 153,000 b/d
Trade flows
Central Bank of Nigeria data put Spain at 10.46% of Nigeria's 2025 crude export earnings, about US$3.30 billion, ahead of France and India.1 The EIA estimates 153,000 barrels per day went to Spain in 2024, more than to any other European country.3
Spain's own statistics add detail that exporter-side data cannot. According to Cores, Spain imported 6.24 million tonnes of Nigerian crude in 2025 — 10.2% of its total crude imports and 15.6% less than in 2024 — making Nigeria its fourth-largest supplier that year.2 In January 2026, however, imports from Nigeria rose to 808,000 tonnes, more than double the previous January, and Nigeria was Spain's largest supplier for the month.4 Month-to-month swings of this size are normal in a trade made up of cargoes of roughly 130,000 tonnes each.
Refiners with documented purchases
Repsol won NNPC's tender for the very first cargo of the new Utapate grade — 950,000 barrels lifted in July 2024 and shipped to Spain.5 Cepsa (renamed Moeve in October 2024) held an NNPC term contract for 60,000 barrels per day in the 2015–16 cycle;6 we have not found cargo-level evidence of its more recent purchases, and do not infer any.
Competitive pressure
Argus reported in July 2026 that West African crude deliveries into Europe had fallen by about 115,000 barrels per day year on year as Brazilian and Guyanese grades gained share, with roughly half of Nigeria's August loading programme still unsold late in July.7 Spain's 2025 decline is consistent with that picture. Europe remains Nigeria's anchor market, but it is a contested one.
Documented buyers at a glance
| Company | Type | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Repsol | Refiner | Won tender for first Utapate cargo, July 20245 |
| Cepsa (now Moeve) | Refiner | NNPC term contract, 2015–16 cycle (historical)6 |
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.