China imported 2, 740 Barrels per day of crude from Nigeria in 2015; and the People’s Republic says it is not enough.
“The total export to China was only one million barrels in 2015”, Zao Ling Xiang, the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. “That was just 1.3% of Nigerian annual oil export”.
Mr. Zao says that his country was keen to buy more from Africa’s largest oil producer.
The narrative around Nigerian crude oil export has focused largely on how its crude grades have struggled to berth in markets that used to demand them. Commentators have severally lamented the fact that the United States was no longer an enthusiastic buyer of Nigerian crudes.
Indeed, the energy media cheered last week when the news agency Reuters reported that Nigerian crude oil export t the United States has for some reason soared again. “Imports of Nigerian crude by the United States last week jumped to 559,000 barrels per day, a weekly record going back to mid-2013. The rise comes as refining firms turned to imports of West African crude that had previously been displaced by domestic grades during the US shale boom.
Nigeria was the fourth largest supplier of foreign crude to the US last week, displacing Mexico and also competing with Iraq and Colombia, according to preliminary figures from the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, Reuters reported”.
As there are no guarantees that the renewed surge of US import of Nigerian crude would last long, Mr. Zao’s words about China’s willingness to purchase more cargoes from Nigeria is a little reassuring. “In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter whether Iran comes back or not”, he told NAN; “Chinese companies want to import more crude oil from Nigeria.”
