This study investigates petroleum sector reforms and inclusive economic growth in Nigeria, focusing on both economic performance and social welfare outcomes. The research is motivated by the paradox that, despite Nigeria’s heavy dependence on petroleum resources as a major source of government revenue and foreign exchange earnings, the country continues to experience high levels of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. The study therefore examines whether recent reforms in the petroleum sector particularly petroleum sector reform implementation, the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), petroleum revenue transparency initiatives, and petroleum subsidy rationalization have translated into broad-based economic growth and improved human development. Using annual time-series data spanning 2000 to 2024, the study adopts an ex post facto research design and employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modelling approach to estimate both short-run and long-run relationships between petroleum sector reforms and inclusive growth indicators. The empirical findings reveal that petroleum sector reform implementation, the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act, and petroleum revenue transparency initiatives have positive and statistically significant effects on both RGDPPC and HDI in the long run. This suggests that improvements in governance, regulatory frameworks, and transparency within the petroleum sector enhance economic efficiency, attract investment, and facilitate better allocation of resources toward development-oriented sectors. Government expenditure is also found to have a positive and significant impact on inclusive growth, highlighting the critical role of fiscal policy in translating petroleum revenues into tangible socio-economic benefits. However, the results show that petroleum subsidy rationalization has a negative but significant effect on both economic growth and human development. This indicates that while subsidy reforms may improve fiscal sustainability