Determinants of Petroleum Products Export from Niger

Abstract

This paper aims to define the main determinants of petroleum products export from Niger in the light of the specificity of the country, in order to make recommendations to policy-makers for improving oil revenues. To carry out this work, we started by interviewing stakeholders in the Niger trade using an interview guide. This was followed by a literature review and exploration of previous empirical work on various studies devoted to the determinants of exports. Finally, statistical data from a number of sources were processed. The main results, derived from the estimation of the OLS gravity model, show that the factors that strongly influence Niger's exports are transport distance and its economic weight when put in relation to that of trading partners. The main recommendations towards policy-makers arising from our research are: the creation of a new refinery close to Burkina Faso and Mali, increased oil production and the ongoing improvement of road transport infrastructure.