Nigeria has lost United States’ oil export market forever – Kachikwu

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has stated that Nigeria has forever lost the United States as a major market of crude export.

Following a surge in the production of shale oil, America’s import of oil from Nigeria dropped to zero in June 2015 from the all-time high of 1.31 million barrels per day of the commodity in February 2006. In the early 2000s, the United States bought 700,000 barrels per day of the commodity.

Speaking at CERAWeek in Houston, US, Kachikwu noted that the era when the United States was a ready market for crude oil from Nigeria “is gone”.

The CERAWeek conference tries to strike an outreach between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and shale oil producers.

Meanwhile, crude oil from Nigeria are now favourites for the Asian markets led by India.