In Nigeria, reforms in the trading and commodities arena have aimed to increase market transparency and regional influence. A notable development came in July 2025, when Nigeria partnered with S&P Global Commodity Insights to launch a West African petroleum products price indexreuters.com. Announced at a conference in Abuja, this initiative will create localized pricing benchmarks for refined fuels – such as gasoline (PMS), diesel, aviation fuel, and LPG – tailored to West African market conditionsreuters.com. Currently, much of West Africa relies on global reference prices (like North West Europe’s Platts quotes) that don’t always reflect regional logistics and supply quirksreuters.com. The new index, developed with S&P Global, is expected to improve price transparency and confidence for investors, while also supporting Nigeria’s bid to become a regional trading hubreuters.comreuters.com. This aligns with Nigeria’s broader downstream liberalization under the 2021 Petroleum Industry Act – for example, fuel subsidies were removed in 2023 and the market opened up. With the 650,000 bpd Dangote Refinery ramping up output, Nigeria already supplies roughly 31% of West Africa’s refined fuel needs, a share poised to growreuters.com. The new pricing framework will thus anchor Nigeria’s growing role in regional fuel trade by providing a trusted reference tailored to West African realities.
Global commodities markets over the past six months have been marked by divergent trends across sectors. According to the World Bank’s October 2025 Commodity Outlook, overall commodity prices are on a gentle downslide, projected to fall ~7% in 2026 amid subdued economic growthblogs.worldbank.org. Energy prices in particular have pulled back: in 2025, crude oil prices declined about 12% on average (Brent averaging ~$68/bbl) after four years of high output and weak demand growthblogs.worldbank.orgblogs.worldbank.org. Oil oversupply – partly from OPEC+ raising production by an estimated 3 million barrels/day this year – and China’s economic cooling led to a 14% drop in Brent in the first nine months of 2025blogs.worldbank.org. In contrast, natural gas saw early-year volatility; European gas prices spiked last winter due to a cold snap and tighter LNG supply, though by Q3 2025 European gas had stabilized while U.S. gas prices remained ~44% higher year-on-year thanks to robust LNG export demandblogs.worldbank.orgblogs.worldbank.org. Meanwhile, precious metals have surged as investors flocked to safe assets amid global uncertainties. Gold and silver prices hit record highs in 2025, with gold gaining over 40% year-to-date supported by strong investment demand and central bank buyingblogs.worldbank.orgblogs.worldbank.org. Many agricultural commodities have trended lower through 2025 – global food prices fell for a third straight quarter by Q3, helped by improved harvests and supplies of grains and vegetable oilsblogs.worldbank.org. In sum, the global commodity landscape is mixed: energy and grain markets are easing, while haven assets like gold boom on financial market jitters.
Looking ahead, industry analysts are debating the possibility of a new commodities super-cycle in the making. A September 2025 analysis by Reuters argued that structural supply and demand factors could spur a long-term upswing in commodity pricesreuters.comreuters.com. On the supply side, years of underinvestment in resource development have left production capacity strained. Many critical commodities are highly concentrated in a few countries – for example, over 40% of global copper output comes from Chile and Peru, and China controls the refining of the vast majority of rare earth elementsreuters.comreuters.com. This concentration raises geopolitical risks (indeed, China briefly curbed rare earth exports in 2025 amid trade tensions)reuters.com and means new mining projects face declining ore grades and long lead timesreuters.com. At the same time, demand for raw materials is set to rise dramatically due to energy transition and tech investments. The push for electrification (electric vehicles, renewable energy, grid expansion) and the data center boom for AI are “profoundly metal-intensive,” driving robust consumption of copper, lithium, nickel and morereuters.comreuters.com. The International Energy Agency, for instance, warns that based on current trends the world could see a 30% copper supply gap by 2035reuters.com. Such an enduring mismatch – inadequate supply versus accelerating demand – suggests a bullish outlook for commodities in the longer termreuters.comreuters.com. While there is no consensus that a super-cycle is imminent, companies and investors in the commodities space are closely watching these fundamentals. The emerging narrative is that the 2020s might pivot from a period of price moderation to one of structurally higher demand, underscoring the value of strategic investments in production capacity and supply-chain resilience.