Petrol Imports Fall Sharply. Bangladesh and Libya Pipeline Talks. Rhofurd as Your Reliable Gas Supply Partner.

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This has been a week where the oil market swung from near paralysis in the Strait of Hormuz to a sharp rally on hopes of a reopening deal, then pulled back again this morning as a fresh Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia reminded everyone the war is not over. At home, Nigeria published a run of hard data this week, on six months of crude production, on how much petrol and diesel the country is still importing, on a huge new gas field sanctioned off the coast, and on two Nigerian companies making multi billion dollar bets on LNG. Let's walk through everything from Tuesday through today in detail, then bring it back, as always, to what it means for Nigeria's gas market and for the businesses that depend on a steady, reliable energy supply.

Let's get into it.

OIL PRICES: FROM A HORMUZ NEAR SHUTDOWN TO A SHARP RALLY AND BACK AGAIN

We start this edition where the shipping story stood on Tuesday, September 22. Reuters reported that commodity vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz fell to just two on Monday, September 21, down from ten the day before, based on preliminary Kpler shipping data that excludes any vessels that may have crossed with their tracking transponders switched off to avoid detection. Before the Iran conflict began, the strait typically handled about 125 large commercial vessels a day, tankers, gas carriers, bulkers and container ships combined, accounting for roughly 20% of the world's daily crude oil and LNG supply. The same day, shipping intelligence firm Marisks Intelligence reported that a crude oil tanker and an LPG carrier had both been attacked while crossing the strait in separate incidents over the weekend.

The Isle of Man flagged crude tanker LR Stephanie was struck by an unidentified projectile while entering the waterway on Monday, causing minor injuries to two crew members, while the Liberia flagged LPG tanker Al Maryah, managed by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, was struck on Sunday while outbound. Both vessels were able to continue without needing towing assistance, and responsibility for neither attack had been confirmed.

The market then swung sharply in the other direction. CNBC reported that Brent crude gained 3.4% to close at $106.60 a barrel, with US WTI climbing 2.7% to settle at $94.61, after a senior Iranian official told Reuters that the most realistic path forward would be for Tehran to allow navigation through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the United States ending its naval blockade, an approach the two countries had briefly agreed to under a June 17 memorandum of understanding before it collapsed into renewed fighting. It remained unclear what, if anything, is different about the current round of talks.

JPMorgan estimated that total oil flows out of the Middle East stood at 17 million barrels a day as of last week, more than 70% of the 2025 average, even as the US military has continued escorting tankers through the strait, a journey that remains dangerous given Iran's continuing attacks on commercial shipping. By Thursday, September 24, Trading Economics reported that only ten commodity vessels had transited Hormuz on Wednesday, still below the ten day moving average of 17, even as Brent traded near $105 a barrel, trimming some of the week's surge on continued signs that the US and Iran could be working toward re-establishing exports from the Persian Gulf. The same day, the US Senate narrowly rejected a nonbinding measure demanding an end to the war with Iran.

By this morning, Friday, September 25, the rally had cooled again. Business Standard reported that Brent was down 87 cents, or 0.82%, to $105.73 a barrel by 0212 GMT, while WTI fell $1.56, or 1.65%, to $93.05, as markets weighed the possibility of a US Iran truce against the risk of further escalation after Yemen's Houthi rebels bombed targets in Saudi Arabia. Thursday's session had actually been sharply positive for both benchmarks, with both contracts rising as much as 5% intraday before Brent settled up 3.4% and WTI 2.7% higher, marking Brent's highest close since September 15 and the first daily rise for WTI in several sessions, following a stretch in which WTI had fallen 13% over six consecutive sessions. For the week overall, Brent is up 2.09% while WTI remains down 6.42%, a reminder of just how much whiplash this market has delivered in a single week.

NIGERIA: SIX MONTHS OF CRUDE DATA SHOWS A JUNE PEAK AND A SUMMER PLATEAU

NUPRC data released this week, and reported widely on Thursday, September 24, showed that Nigeria produced approximately 306.99 million barrels of crude oil and condensate between March and August 2026, averaging about 1.67 million barrels a day over the six month window. The month by month picture shows a steady build followed by a plateau, production started at 1.56 million barrels a day in March, about 48.49 million barrels for the month, then rose to 1.66 million barrels a day in April, around 49.90 million barrels, before climbing further to 1.70 million barrels a day in May, roughly 52.72 million barrels.

June was the standout month, with combined output reaching a peak of 1.74 million barrels a day, about 52.06 million barrels across the 30 day month. Production then eased slightly to 1.67 million barrels a day in July, about 51.80 million barrels, before edging back up marginally to 1.68 million barrels a day in August, yielding roughly 52.01 million barrels, the figure NUPRC confirmed separately as 1,677,777 barrels a day when it released its full August report earlier this month. In strict crude oil terms, excluding condensate, August output stood at exactly 1.50 million barrels a day, matching Nigeria's OPEC quota precisely.

NIGERIA: PETROL IMPORTS FALL SHARPLY AS DANGOTE SUPPLIES 71% OF THE MARKET

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority released its August 2026 State of the Midstream and Downstream Sector factsheet on Thursday, September 24, and the numbers show a genuine shift in Nigeria's fuel supply chain. Total daily petrol receipts rose 11% from 45.5 million litres in July to 50.5 million litres in August. Of that total, domestic PMS receipts jumped 39%, from 25.8 million litres a day to 35.9 million litres a day, representing 71% of everything supplied that month, up from 56.7% domestic share in July. Petrol imports, meanwhile, fell 26%, from 19.7 million litres a day to 14.6 million litres a day.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery alone produced an average of 41.94 million litres of petrol a day in August, operating above its nameplate capacity, and supplied 35.87 million litres of that to the domestic market. Overall PMS consumption actually fell 14%, from 48.3 million litres a day in July to 41.5 million litres a day in August. Diesel imports collapsed even more sharply than petrol, dropping to just 1.3 million litres a day in August from 7.9 million litres a day in July, while crude oil deliveries to Nigeria's domestic refineries rose 17%, from 585,000 barrels a day in July to 683,000 barrels a day in August. Between January and August 2026, domestic refineries received 137.98 million barrels of crude feedstock in total, with domestic crude sources accounting for 79.64% of that and imported crude making up the remaining 20.36%. The Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna state owned refineries recorded no production at all during August, while among the modular refineries, Edo Refinery ran at 90.43% capacity utilisation, WalterSmith at 64.77%, Aradel at 58.77% and OPAC at 16.97%.

In the one product category moving in the opposite direction, LPG imports actually increased in August, rising to 1.3 million litres a day from 0.9 million litres a day in July, even as petrol and diesel imports both fell. That increase comes against the backdrop of a petrol import bill that Nairametrics has reported surged 989.4% quarter on quarter to N952.15 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up from N87.40 billion in the first quarter, underlining just how sensitive Nigeria's import bill remains to both volumes and the naira exchange rate even as import volumes themselves decline.

NIGERIA: TOTALENERGIES SANCTIONS IMA GAS FIELD TO FEED NLNG TRAIN 7

In a significant final investment decision announced this week and reported by Oriental News Nigeria on Thursday, September 24, TotalEnergies and its Nigerian partner AMNI have agreed to move forward with development of the Ima gas field, straddling the OML 112 and OML 117 offshore licences in shallow waters close to Bonny Island. The field will be developed through a single platform connected by a 22 kilometre pipeline directly to NLNG, whose shareholders are NNPC at 49%, Shell at 25.6%, TotalEnergies at 15% and Eni at 10.4%. Production start up is expected in 2028, with the field reaching a plateau of 350 million cubic feet a day, equivalent to more than 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, and is expected to supply roughly one third of the gas feedstock required for NLNG's ongoing Train 7 expansion, which will lift the plant's capacity from 22 to 30 million tonnes a year.

TotalEnergies operates the project with a 40% interest, with AMNI holding the remaining 60%. Nicolas Terraz, President of Exploration and Production at TotalEnergies, described Ima as a low cost, low emissions development, featuring a simplified platform design, electric power supplied from shore, no flaring, and permanent methane detection and monitoring, and noted it follows the Ubeta project the companies sanctioned in 2024 and which is due to start up next year. The project carries strong Nigerian content, with all key contractors being local companies, and around 60% of the workforce during development is expected to be sourced from host communities.

NIGERIA: GAS DIPLOMACY AT GASTECH INCLUDES BANGLADESH, LIBYA PIPELINE TALKS

Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, used the Gastech 2026 conference in Bangkok, Thailand to hold a series of high level meetings aimed at translating the country's 215.19 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves into investment and export revenue, according to a ministry statement issued Monday night, September 21 and widely reported on Tuesday, September 22. Ekpo held talks with counterparts and energy executives from Bangladesh, the United States, Senegal and Russia.

In a meeting with Bangladesh's Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Iqbal Hassan Mahmood, the Asian country expressed interest in sourcing Nigerian LNG and crude oil, while a separate meeting with US Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly covered gas sector investment, technology deployment, energy security and clean cooking initiatives.

Ekpo also met Libya's Minister of Oil and Gas, Khalifa Rajab Abdulsadek, to discuss a proposed Nigeria-Libya gas pipeline that could provide an additional route for transporting Nigerian gas through North Africa into European markets, with both sides agreeing to explore a Memorandum of Understanding and establish a joint technical team, NNPC Limited is expected to lead Nigeria's side of that framework. Separately, Ekpo met the Country Chairman of Daewoo E&C Nigeria to review progress on the NLNG Train 7 project itself, covering contractor payments, timelines, safety performance and quality assurance. Nigeria is open for business, Ekpo said, adding that the security of investors and their investments is guaranteed.

NIGERIA: GLOBAL DIESEL SHORTAGE LIFTS VALUE OF FORCADOS AND BONGA CRUDE

A global shortage of diesel and other middle distillates is making Nigeria's medium sweet crude grades more attractive to international refiners, BusinessDay reported on Thursday, September 24. The European diesel crack spread, a measure of the margin refiners earn converting crude into diesel, hit a record $98 a barrel on September 1 before easing slightly to $95.30 on September 2, according to S&P Global. That compares with an August average of $80.50, up from $71.71 in July and just $44.75 in June, an escalation that reflects how tight global diesel supply has become. Because Nigerian grades such as Forcados and Bonga are capable of yielding more diesel than many alternative crude streams, refiners seeking to maximise diesel output are increasingly favouring them, lifting their relative value even as the wider crude market remains volatile.

WHERE RHOFURD ENERGY COMES IN

Few weeks illustrate the distance between a headline and a household better than this one. Vessel traffic through Hormuz collapsed to two ships in a single day, an LPG tanker was struck leaving the strait, and yet by Thursday the same market had rallied more than 3% on hopes of a reopening deal, only to give some of that back this morning after a fresh attack on Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, six months of hard production data, a sharp drop in petrol and diesel imports, a multi billion dollar gas field sanctioned offshore, and two separate multi billion dollar LNG bets from Nigerian companies all landed in the same few days. Reliability, in a market like this, cannot depend on getting every one of those headlines right.

Rhofurd Energy Limited supplies LPG, propane and condensate, delivering operational standards so our clients receive quality gases for their production needs. When a single week can carry a near total shutdown of the world's most important oil chokepoint, a three percent rally on diplomatic hopes, and a wave of multi billion dollar Nigerian gas investment decisions, all at once, the businesses whose supply does not rise and fall with each of those headlines are the ones that keep running without interruption. That is the position we have built, and it is where we intend to stay.

Stay energized. That's the story, and we will keep tracking these shifts closely in Energy Nigeria with Rhofurd.

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