Nigerian crude oil sales to US rise by 32.1% to $2.7bn in six months

The sales of Nigeria’s crude oil to the United States increased by 32.1 per cent to $2.7 billion or 52.36 million barrels in the first half of this year as against the figure in the same period of 2016.
This is according to the US Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the country’s Energy Department in its latest data. The country, as the data revealed, bought 10.24 million barrels from Nigeria in March, the highest monthly import since July 2013.
It imported 9.78 million barrels in January; 5.96 million barrels in February; 9.16 million barrels in April; 8.69 million barrels in May and 8.53 million barrels in June.
With Bonny Light, Nigeria’s main export grade, averaging $51 per barrel in the first half of the year, the 52.36 million barrels imported by the US translate to an income of about $2.67bn for the country.
The US almost tripled the volume of crude oil bought from Nigeria last year, with the biggest monthly import of 8.43 million barrels in July. It imported 76.9 million barrels of Nigeria’s oil in 2016, up from 19.9 million barrels in 2015.
There was a significant reduction in the US imports of its crude in recent years, starting from 2012, following the shale oil production boom. The import of Nigeria’s crude fell to 6.17 million in June 2013 from 10.115 million barrels in May and about 40 million barrels in March 2007.
In 2014, when global oil prices started to fall from a peak of $115 per barrel, Nigeria saw a further drop in the US imports of its crude from 87.4 million barrels in 2013 to a record low of 21.2 million barrels.
For the first time in decades, the US did not purchase any barrel of Nigeria’s crude in July and August 2014 and June 2015, according to the EIA data.
Going by Reuters report on Monday, a handful of cargoes had traded in November so far though October cargoes of Angolan and Nigerian was still lingering as demand for that month had slowed due to limited arbitrage and stronger outright prices.