The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu has explained how Nigeria lost its biggest crude oil buyer, United States of America.
As at the early 2000s, US Energy Information Administration said that the North American nation got around 700,000 per day from Nigeria which climbed to 1.31 million per barrel in February 2006, the highest demand for the West African nation’s petroleum.
Since then however, the volume has declined until it hit zero in June 2015.
This trend has been described as possible as a result of the surge in the production of shale oil, which shares characteristics with the light sweet crude produced by Nigeria.
In an event in the US recently, Kachikwu said, “That’s gone”, in reference to the US oil market for Nigeria.
Nigeria’s crude is now consumed mostly in Asia, with India leading the pack.