- US Reduces Nigeria’s Oil Imports
The U.S has reduced Nigeria’s crude oil import from 4.87 million barrel per day imported in January to 539,000 bpd in February.
The report showed the US imports of Nigerian crude oil dropped to a four-year low in February.
The US imported 5.18 million bpd in December, down from 10.03 million bpd in January 2018, the Energy Information Administration reported on Friday.
The total import of Nigerian crude oil declined by 48.87 million barrels or 43 per cent in 2018.
“The US imports of Nigerian crude fell to 64.06 million barrels last year from a five-year high of 112.92 million barrels in 2017.
“The EIA data showed that the country imported 75.81 million barrels of Nigerian oil in 2016, up from 19.85 million barrels in 2015.
“US imports of Nigerian crude fell from 148.48 million barrels in 2012 to 87.40 million barrels in 2013 on the back of shale oil boom.
“Light sweet Nigerian crude is very similar to the light oil produced in US shale. As US shale production has grown, the appetite for Nigerian crude in the US has dropped dramatically.
“In 2014, when global oil prices started to fall from a peak of $115 per barrel, Nigeria saw a further drop in US imports of its crude to 21.24 million barrels.
“For the first time in decades, the US did not purchase any barrel of Nigerian crude in July and August 2014 as well as June 2015, according to the EIA data.
“In 2010, the US bought as much as 358.92 million barrels from Nigeria, but slashed its imports to 280.08 million barrels in 2011.
“With the sharp increase in its production, the US oil exports averaged 1.9 million bpd in 2018, about twice the amount that was exported in 2017, according to the EIA.
“Crude oil exports from the US to the United Kingdom overtook supplies from other countries including Nigeria for the first time since such shipments began in 2015.
“In January this year, the US supplied the equivalent of almost one in every four barrels of crude processed by UK oil refineries, or 264,000 bpd, according to the Financial Times.
“That level was more than Norway, Russia, Nigeria or Algeria, according to data from the cargo-tracking company Kpler, which have all been major suppliers to the UK in recent years.
“South Korea overtook China as the number-two destination for US crude behind Canada in 2018, as shipments to South Korea soared to a record high of 558,000 bpd in December, according to the EIA.”
