China eyes more crude import from Nigeria

CHINESE crude oil importation from Nigeria may soon bounce back, following the latest promise by the Chinese government to increase importation from Nigeria after a sharp drop recently.

  China’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Nigeria, Mr. Zhang Bin, who was in Nigeria on a trade mission said the Chinese government is looking forward to importing more of Nigeria’s oil following the loss of America’s market.

  Zhang disclosed that China was interested in Nigeria’s oil and that when President Goodluck Jonathan visited China in 2013, the country discussed the possibility of importing more oil from Nigeria.

  “And I think we are working on this and we hope that the Nigerian side would allow us to import more.

  “Actually what we are looking at is improved economic cooperation between the two countries, we are the third largest trade partner with Nigeria”, he said.

  Zhang also informed that the trade volume between Nigeria and China in 2014 exceeded $16 billion, but his country was looking at possibilities of improving balancing of trade with Nigeria.

  He said the figure exceeded that of 2013, which he put at $13.5 billion.

  “In 2013, the trade volume between Nigeria and China was $13.5 billion and then according to our statistics, from January to November 2014, the trade volume already amounted to $16.47 billion.

  “So that means that in the first 11 months, the trade volume exceeded that of the year 2013, which indicates an increase of 35 per cent over the previous year.

  “We do have this problem of trade imbalance and the Chinese side is going all out to solve it.

  “One of the solutions is that we encourage more Chinese enterprises and companies to import more from Nigeria, especially agriculture products and also some of the manufactured products,” he said.