India, which recently replaced the United States as Nigeria’s biggest oil market, cut its import of the country’s crude by 38 per cent in December, while China did not import a barrel from the country in the period, data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation revealed.
India’s import of Nigerian crude tumbled to 5.2 million barrels in December, from 13.7 million in October and 12.4 million in November 2014.
China, which bought 1.9 million barrels of Nigerian crude in October, reduced its import from the country by 50.3 per cent to 946,913 barrels in November.
With the decline in imports from India and China, the share of the Asian region in Nigeria’s crude oil export dropped to 20 per cent in December from 30 per cent in October and 27 per cent in November.
The Asian region, which is the major target market for many oil exporters, is a key market for Nigeria.
Total export from Nigeria in the month of October stood at 65.9 million, down from 67.1 million barrels in September and 70 million barrels in August, according to the NNPC data.
“Four regions namely, Europe, Asia and Far East, South America and Africa remain the major destinations of Nigerian crude and condensate export,” the NNPC said.
Europe continued to be the largest regional importer of Nigerian oil as its imported 31.4 million barrels in December, up from 23.6 million barrels in October.
The Head of Energy Research, Ecobank Capital, Mr. Dolapo Oni, told our correspondent that the decline in imports from the country’s top importers – India and China – was expected, adding that it became cheaper to buy oil from several other countries, especially from Central and South America.
“There was a lot of substitution between cargoes from West Africa and from these regions. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia raised oil output from 9.6 million barrels per day to 10 million bpd within the last quarter of 2014 to compensate for the fall in Libya’s oil output.
“The proximity to Asia means the extra barrels were pushed into Asia at lower prices. Saudi Arabia cut its official selling price to Asia in October and November but raised it slightly in December.”
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