Nigerian crude exports to the United States hit a three year high this week after it exported 559,000bpd of crude. This is a weekly record as the last time we attained this high was in mid-2013.
According to a Reuters report, Nigeria was the fourth largest supplier of foreign crude to the US last week coming ahead of the likes of Mexico, Colombia and Iraq who are also competing to export to the US.
Up until the shale boom, the United States was the largest importer of Nigeria’s crude. Exports of Nigeria’s crude to the US fell to nearly zero in 2015 amidst and over supply in the US and around the world. According to the article, Nigeria exported over 1 million bpd to the US between 2004 and 2007. The shale boom now negatively reversed this trend with the United Staqtes importing just 58,000 bpd from Nigeria in 2014 and 2015.
Latest Exports to the US
Of the 11 cargoes of Nigerian crude that have arrived in the United States this month, eight went to the East Coast, while the remainder were sent to the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to Thomson Reuters Trade Flows data.
Along with typical cargoes of Nigeria’s Qua Iboe, Bonga and Forcados, two 500,000-barrel cargoes of Usan medium crude were delivered to Royal Dutch Shell at South Louisiana Port, marking the first time since May 2014 that this crude has entered the United States. According to Reuters;
From 2004 to 2007, Nigeria exported over 1 million bpd to the United States, but a surge of U.S. domestic production that is of similar quality – including shale oil – later forced African light sweet crude producers, especially Nigeria, to find new destinations for their exports.
In consequence, the United States only imported some 58,000 bpd from Nigeria in 2014 and 2015, the EIA data say.
US Shale volumes ae expected to drop by 106,000 bpd to 4.87 million bpd, which Reuters also reports is the second-largest monthly decline on record.