U.S. purchase of Nigeria’s crude rises to 12.1mb in February

‘India remains highest importer of our oil’
United States of America’s crude oil import from Nigeria has increased from the 8.5 million barrels it recorded in January to 12.1 million barrels in February.

The U.S., which had earlier abandoned crude oil import from Nigeria due to its shale evolution, started buying the commodity in May last year with 948,577 barrels and gradually increased to 3.9 million barrels in November 2015.

According to the latest data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s Crude Oil Export Destination, Canada, which is a major crude oil producer and supplier to the U.S., has also resumed importation from Nigeria with 1.9 million barrels in February.

India has however, remained the highest and consistent importer of Nigeria’s crude oil with 12.6 million barrels in February, down from the 16.2 billion it recorded in January 2016.

Nigeria’s highest crude oil export destination includes India, U.S., Canada, China, France, Italy, Indonesia, South Africa, Spain and United Kingdom.

Nigeria has been an important oil supplier to the United States, but the absolute volume and the share of U.S. imports from Nigeria have fallen substantially in recent years.

United States imported an average of 57,000 bpd of crude oil from Nigeria in 2015, a more than 90 per cent drop from the average volume imported in 2010.

As a result, Nigeria fell from being the 5th-largest foreign oil supplier to the United States in 2011 to the 11th in 2015.As U.S. imports of Nigerian oil decreased over the past few years, European and Asian imports from Nigeria increased. European imports of Nigerian crude and condensate increased year-over-year by more than 40 per cent in 2011 and by 30 per cent in 2012, making Europe the largest regional importer of Nigerian oil.

The EIA said that the European embargo on Iranian crude imports and sporadic supply disruptions in Libya contributed to Europe’s increased oil imports from Nigeria.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that the European embargo on Iranian crude imports and sporadic supply disruptions in Libya contributed to Europe’s increased oil imports from Nigeria.

It disclosed that European imports of Nigerian crude decreased by 100,000 bpd in 2015, reflecting a decrease in Nigerian crude production along with more European imports from other countries such as Iraq.

According to the agency, the top five exporting countries accounted for 79 per cent of United States crude oil imports in February while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 94 per cent of all U.S. crude oil imports.

It listed the five sources of U.S. crude oil imports for February to included Canada with 3,558 thousand barrels per day; Saudi Arabia, 1,008 thousand barrels per day; Venezuela, 726 thousand barrels per day; Mexico, 489 thousand barrels per day; and Colombia, 472 thousand barrels per day.

The remaining top ten sources, in order, it disclosed were Kuwait, 289 thousand barrels per day; Nigeria, 257 thousand barrels per day; Ecuador, 246 thousand barrels per day; Iraq, 245 thousand barrels per day and Brazil, 144 thousand barrels per day.