Nigeria may be on the verge of regaining its crude oil market share in the United States (U.S.) following President Donald Trump’s plan to build more infrastructural projects, The Nation has learnt.
Nigeria’s exports to the U.S. fell from 950,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2010 to 57,000 bpd in 2015.
Also, Angola suffered a decline in oil exports to U.S. as its exports fell from 484,000 bpd in 2009 to 124,000 bpd in 2015.
However, all that has been confined to past as Trump plans to build more infrastructure for oil and gas.
The former President, Association of International Energy Economist, Prof Adeola Akinnisiju, said if the plans materialise, it would open the door for production increase for Nigeria.
He said Nigeria, which once had the U.S. as the main customer for exports, may find new opportunities to reignite its upstream sector as past oil selling agreements between the two countries become attractive once again.
Akinnisiju said Nigeria was more likely to benefit from hypothetical unmet growing oil demand in the U.S. than Angola, adding that Angola had built stronger ties with China which is its main crude oil buyer in the recent years.
He said the past two years witnessed low oil prices for U.S. and other countries, noting that the development created room for a considerable stocking of oil.
Akinnisiju said: “For sometime now, members and non members of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have had difficult times, getting enough earnings from the sales of crude oil. The development made U.S. and other countries to stock their oil, with the hope of selling it when the price goes up. The time has come for such countries to sell their crude and mak more money from it.’’
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