Nigeria’s share of United States crude imports is yet to improve. In January 2012, imports from Nigeria totaled just 449,000 barrels per day, a 54% decrease from January 2011 with 519,000 barrels per day. However, latest figures released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveal that Nigeria’s crude export to US for January 2014 stands at 51,000 barrels per day.
The top three foreign oil suppliers to US are Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico. These countries generally produce medium to heavy, sour crude oil that is desirable to US refineries. In addition, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, these countries are near the United States, with Mexico having a short ship ping distance for its oil to the large number of refineries along the US Gulf Coast. These could be militating factors against more shipments of Nigerian crude to US.
While US total net crude oil imports fell during 2013, the share of imports last year from the United States’ top three foreign oil suppliers (Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico) were the highest in at least four decades, according to preliminary annual trade data from EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly report. These three countries provided almost three out of every five barrels of oil imported into the US market last year.
US net crude oil imports in 2013 declined 10.2 percent to 7.6 million barrels per day (b/d), the lowest level since 1996, as rising domestic crude oil production cut into the volume of imports needed to meet refinery demand for crude oil.
The overall decline in US net imports has led to an increasing concentration of net imports from Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico. Combined net oil imports from these countries decreased by 1.5 percent last year. As a result, the 4.6 million barrels per day of oil supplied by these three countries accounted for 61 percent of total US net oil imports in 2013, up from 55 percent the year before and their biggest share since at least 1973.
Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico have consistently been America’s three largest crude oil suppliers, although their rankings vary from year to year. US Crude oil imports from Canada averaged a record 2.5 million barrels per day, up 3.9% from 2012 while Saudi Arabia exports to US averaged 1.3 million barrels per day, down 2.6%, but still the second highest in five years. Mexico crude oil export to US averages 850,000 barrels per day.
