U.S. importation of Nigerian oil plunges by 62% in Q1

The volume of crude oil imported by the United States from Nigeria plummeted by 61.7% in the first quarter of this year relative to the last quarter of 2019, data obtained from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday has revealed.

The U.S. imported 5.872 million barrels of crude oil from Nigeria in Q1 2020, down from the 15.345 million barrels reported in Q4 2019.

It has substantially reduced the quantity of its oil import from Nigeria in the past few years because the oil produced in the U.S. shale operations is close to the light sweet Nigerian crude.

Nigeria has been striving hard to find buyers for its crude after the coronavirus pandemic triggered an oil price crash and fall in demand.

An expansion in shale oil production has hurt Nigeria’s oil exportation to the U.S., which once accounted for the purchase of between 40 to 50 per cent of Nigeria’s cargoes.

Nigeria’s oil exportation to the U.S. reached 358.92 million barrels in 2010 but crashed to 280.08 million barrels in 2011.

The U.S. importation of Nigerian crude plummeted from 148.48 million barrels in 2012 to 87.40 million a year after.

Read also: Nigeria loses 79,000 barrels of oil as Delta communities shut down flow stations

Nigeria witnessed a further fall of 21.24 million barrels in its oil export to the U.S. in 2014.

Meanwhile, a panel meeting convened by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to review the oil market this week will advise the wider OPEC+ group cooperating on a record supply cut, Reuters said.

OPEC and its Russia-led allies, a group known as OPEC+, consented on Saturday to sustain supply cuts of 9.7 million barrels per day or one-tenth of the pre-coronavirus global demand till the end of July.

OPEC+ equally agreed that a team called Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) will meet monthly until the end of 2020 to advance consultations on the effectiveness of the agreement. Its first meeting is scheduled for next Thursday.

“It’s an advisory committee that can make recommendations,” one of the OPEC+ sources said of the JMMC’s role.

The JMMC is made up of OPEC members including Algeria, Kuwait, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as well as non-OPEC countries – Russia and Kazakhstan.

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