Last week, U.S. Grains Council (USGC) Regional Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Ramy H. Taieb led a delegation to Nigeria to study the country’s potential for enhanced ethanol consumption. The team met with government officials and key Nigerian oil industry stakeholders to discuss energy transition plans for a 10 percent ethanol blending in gasoline (E10) mandate.
Taieb traveled to Lagos and Abuja with USGC Ethanol Technical Consultant Rowena Torres, USGC MEA Regional Ethanol Consultant Gbenga Apampa and Growth Energy Consultant Kristy Moore.
“Nigeria has a rapidly expanding transportation industry and per the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has imported 17 million more gallons of U.S. ethanol compared to the same time last marketing year,” Taieb said. “I expect that number to continue to rise at an accelerated rate in the coming years and the Council’s work on this mission and others will help position the U.S. ethanol industry as the clear choice for Nigerian importers.”
The team met with major energy marketers’ associations to learn how the U.S. agricultural industry can supplement Nigerian ethanol production and toured Dangote Refinery, one of the largest of its kind in the world, to assess its capacity for biofuel integration. Opened in 2024, the Dangote refinery has been equipped to facilitate ethanol import, blending and re-export of preblended gasoline to West Africa and Europe, potentially changing the energy dynamic in the entire region.
The agenda also included a meeting with USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) staff based in Lagos for a market update and to share the Council’s plans for further demand building in the country.
Later, the group met with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Petroleum Retail Owners Association of Nigeria for their assessment of consumer demand for biofuels.
To cap off the trip, the team held meetings with officials from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to hear details about the government’s outlook on future energy and biofuels-related policies.
“Allowing E10 policy on a national and commercially scaled level would likely incentivize investment in Nigeria’s domestic ethanol industry and would also generate an estimated 400 million gallons of ethanol demand for fuel, of which the majority would be expected to be imported, and potentially doubling U.S. agricultural trade with Nigeria,” Taieb said.
Learn more about the Council’s work in Nigeria here.
About The U.S. Grains Council
The U.S. Grains Council develops export markets for U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products including distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and ethanol. With full-time presence in 28 locations, the Council operates programs in more than 50 countries and the European Union. The Council believes exports are vital to global economic development and to U.S. agriculture’s profitability. Detailed information about the Council and its programs is online at www.grains.org.