Nigeria is now importing almost as much crude, from the United States (US) as it exports to the world’s largest economy.
The US ships refined-petroleum cargoes like gasoline and kerosene to Nigeria, with May figures from US Energy Department data showing shipments hit the highest volumes ever.
Meanwhile in the past five years the Americans have reduced the amount of crude it buys from Africa’s largest economy, currently getting less than 2 percent of its oil from Nigeria, compared with 7 percent in 2011.
First the U.S. shale-oil boom took away the country’s biggest crude-export market. Now Nigeria is dependent on American fuel to power its automobiles and aircrafts.
