"During April to May, Western Africa’s clean petroleum product (CPP) imports fell 44% year on year, from 1,144 thousand barrels per day (kbpd) to 642 kbpd,” says Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.
The drop in import volumes cut tonne miles by 47% year on year, lowering the region’s share of global CPP tonne miles from 5.3% to 3.6%. LR1 and LR2 product tankers recorded the largest declines, down 88% and 78% respectively, and together accounted for 55% of the total tonne miles loss.
MR product tanker tonne miles fell only 4% year on year during April to May, despite a sharp drop in imports from all major loading regions. A 34-fold increase in volumes from the Americas largely offset the decline, limiting the overall loss.
The Americas was the only region to increase CPP shipments to Western Africa in April to May 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. By contrast, shipments from the two largest export regions, North Europe and Africa, fell by more than 50%, together accounting for 75% of the total decline in imports.
“The drop in Western Africa’s imports appears to reflect a reduced role for Lome as a key offshore storage and redistribution hub. Imports into Lome offshore storage, and re-exports from there to Western Africa, experienced a larger volume decline than the region overall,” says Rasmussen.
Re-exports from Lome offshore to destinations outside of Western Africa increased slightly, but not enough to offset an 89% year-on-year drop in re-exports to Nigeria and similarly sharp declines to other West African countries.
Nigeria has historically received about half of the barrels re-exported from Lome offshore. However, the Dangote refinery is now operating at close to full capacity and supplied nearly 80% of Nigeria’s petrol demand in April, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Reports indicate that the refinery could meet up to 90% of domestic demand.
Dangote has also started building a second crude processing unit with a capacity of 700 kbpd which would more than double the refinery’s current 650 kbpd capacity. The new unit is expected to come online by the end of 2028. This expansion could support higher exports and further weaken demand for Lome’s offshore operations.
“As Lome may never regain Nigeria’s volumes, its position as a major offshore import and storage hub could be lost along with the related tanker demand. It could, however, remain an important offshore distribution hub for smaller markets and ports,” says Rasmussen.
