Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached a four-year high growth in the second quarter (April-June) of 2025, indicating the strongest economic growth since mid-2021. This growth was primarily driven by performance in the oil and gas industry, which has traditionally been the backbone of the Nigerian economy. The latest GDP report released by the National …
Oil Sector Drives Nigeria’s GDP Growth Surge
Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached a four-year high growth in the second quarter (April-June) of 2025, indicating the strongest economic growth since mid-2021.
This growth was primarily driven by performance in the oil and gas industry, which has traditionally been the backbone of the Nigerian economy.
The latest GDP report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the oil and gas sector led with a significant 20 per cent year-on-year growth in Q2 2025, indicating an increase of 10.38 percentage points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2024 (10.08 per cent). This figure represents 18.59 percentage points of growth when compared to 1.87 per cent growth in Q1 2025.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the oil sector recorded a growth rate of 6.01 per cent in Q2 2025.
In terms of sectoral contribution, the oil and gas sector contributed 4.05 per cent to the total real GDP in Q2 2025, up from 3.51 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of 2024. It also surpassed the 3.97 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter.
The development has been attributed to a significant rise in crude oil production this year. The GDP report revealed that Nigeria recorded an average daily oil production of 1.68 million barrels per day (mbpd) in the second quarter of 2025.
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This reflects a 0.27 mbpd increase from the daily average production of 1.41 mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2024. It is also higher than the first quarter of 2025 production volume of 1.62 mbpd.
Pinnacle Daily had reported that the GDP recorded an overall growth of 4.23 per cent, the highest since Q2 2021. This reflects a 110-basis point increase from the 3.13 per cent recorded in Q1 2025 and a 75-basis point rise compared to the 3.4 per cent growth in the same period of 2024.
According to the Crude Oil and Condensate Production for August 2025, released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) recently, the country recorded 1.63 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensates production in August. While crude oil production stood at 1.43mpd, condensate was 197,229 bpd.
The 1.63 million bpd in August reflects a slight 4.7 per cent drop in combined crude oil and condensate production from 1.71 million bpd in July.
The NUPRC, in a statement signed by its head of media and strategic communications, Eniola Akinkuotu, said the month-on-month decline was due to an unscheduled maintenance an oil facility.
However, earlier reports had shown that crude oil and condensate production has been on a steady rise since April (when it recorded 1.61mbpd). It rose to 1.63 million bpd in May, 1.68mbpd in June and 1.71mbpd in July.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist, scholar and analyst of socioeconomic issues in Nigeria and Africa. He is skilled in energy reporting, business and economy, and holds a master's degree in mass communication.
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