Brunei Export Trade Data: $11.24B in 2023, Down 21.0%

Australia, Singapore, and China Lead Brunei's Export Markets

Brunei shipped $11.24 billion worth of goods abroad in 2023, the latest year with verified trade data in this dataset. That total marks a decline of 21.0% from the $14.23 billion recorded in 2022, the sharpest annual pullback in the five-year span this dataset covers. Australia was the largest buyer, absorbing 21.6% of the total, worth $2.43 billion.

Singapore ranked a close second at 17.1% ($1.92 billion), just ahead of China at 16.7% ($1.88 billion) and Japan at 13.9% ($1.56 billion). Malaysia took fifth place at 6.8% ($768.11 million), followed by Thailand at 4.9% ($549.08 million) and Indonesia at 2.9% ($330.90 million). South Korea took eighth place at 2.7% ($301.28 million), Brazil added 2.3% ($262.25 million), and the Philippines rounded out the top ten at 2.3% ($258.24 million). Together, the top three destinations made up 55.4% of total export value.

Unlike many oil-producing economies where a single long-term buyer dominates, Brunei's top four destinations sit within a fairly tight range of each other, from 21.6% down to 13.9%. China's third-place position reflects a relationship that has grown substantially in recent years. Hengyi Industries, a joint venture between China's Zhejiang Hengyi Group and the Brunei government's Strategic Development Capital Fund, operates a refinery and petrochemical complex on Pulau Muara Besar that produces petrol, diesel, jet fuel, and organic chemicals such as paraxylene and benzene, feeding both domestic use and export markets. That facility helps explain both China's strong showing among buyers and the size of the organic chemicals category further down this page. Japan's fourth-place position reflects the country's decades-long role as a buyer of Brunei's liquefied natural gas, while Singapore's second-place ranking fits its status as a regional shipping and refining hub. Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia round out the middle of the list as fellow Southeast Asian economies with their own refining and petrochemical capacity, while South Korea, Brazil, and the Philippines close out the top ten with smaller but still meaningful volumes.

Oil and Gas Dominate an Overwhelmingly Energy-Driven Export Mix

Mineral fuels, mineral oils and related distillation products led all export categories in 2023, worth $8.70 billion and accounting for 77.4% of total export value. Organic chemicals followed at 16.8% ($1.89 billion), and fertilizers ranked a distant third at 3.2% ($359.04 million).

Iron or steel articles added 0.6% ($64.60 million), while aircraft, spacecraft and related parts contributed 0.4% ($46.55 million). Machinery and mechanical appliances brought in 0.4% ($43.97 million), and optical, photographic and medical instruments added 0.2% ($19.26 million). Electrical machinery and equipment contributed 0.2% ($18.93 million), works of art and antiques added 0.1% ($16.21 million), and fish and crustaceans closed out the top ten at 0.1% ($14.24 million).

Mineral fuels and organic chemicals together account for more than nine out of every ten dollars of Brunei's export value, leaving almost nothing for every other category combined. That concentration reflects an economy built around crude oil, liquefied natural gas, and the downstream petrochemical products refined from them, with fertilizers, largely urea derived from the same natural gas feedstock, extending the same energy-driven theme into a third category. Everything from iron and steel articles down to fish and crustaceans makes up a rounding error next to the top three, underscoring how little of Brunei's export economy operates outside oil, gas, and their derivatives. Fish and crustaceans and works of art, though tiny in dollar terms, are among the few categories that reflect ordinary consumer or artisanal activity rather than industrial-scale extraction and refining, a reminder of how narrow the country's non-energy export base remains even as the government has spoken publicly about wanting to diversify away from hydrocarbons.

A Sharp Pullback After a Record Year

Brunei's exports followed a volatile path over the past five years. Exports fell from $7.04 billion in 2019 to $6.61 billion in 2020, likely reflecting disrupted shipping and softer energy demand during the early stages of the global pandemic, then nearly doubled to $11.06 billion in 2021 and climbed further to a five-year high of $14.23 billion in 2022, before declining 21.0% to $11.24 billion in 2023.

The scale of the swings, particularly the jump from 2020 to 2022 followed by the sharp 2023 pullback, illustrates how closely Brunei's total export figure tracks global oil and gas prices, given how much of the total rests on those two commodities. For a closer look at how individual partner countries or product categories break down year over year, the data panels above provide the full detail behind these figures.