India remains Nigeria’s top oil export destination

Records shortfall in oil, gas revenue

Nigeria exported over 155.125 million barrels of crude oil to India between February and March 2017, thus making it the biggest importer, according to data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Countries like the United States of America, Netherlands, and Spain imported 107.976 million, 61.561 million barrels and 60.353 million barrels respectively, while others including China, Malaysia and Australia had drastically reduced crude import from Nigeria.

According to the NNPC, revenue from Nigeria’s oil and gas export decreased from $404.55 million in March to $142.12 million in April, where contributions from crude amounted to $71.81million, while gas and miscellaneous receipt stood at $70.29 million and $0.013 million respectively.

The Corporation stated: “Total export crude oil and gas receipt for the period of April 2016 to April 2017 stood at $2.50 billion. Out of which the sum of $2.29 billion was transferred to the Joint Venture (JV) cash call in line with 2016 approved budget, pending 2017 budget approval and the exit of JV cash call and the balance of $0.21billion was paid to Federation Account

“However, this JV cash call amount falls short of the 2016 appropriated amount of $8.64 billion. This is due to twin effect of production disruption in Niger.”

It disclosed that a total export sale of $158.03 million was recorded in April, 2017, representing a $203.92 million lower than the preceding month’s performance of $361.95 million.

It added that crude oil export sales contributed 45.44 per cent of the dollar transactions compared with $255.50 million contribution in the previous month.

It explained: “Also, the export gas sales amounted to $86.21million in the month. The April 2016 to April 2017 crude oil and gas transactions indicate that crude oil and gas worth $2,729.54 million was exported.”