Nigeria Overtakes Saudi Arabia in Crude Supply to US
By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku, 05.22.2007
Nigeria has overtaken Saudi Arabia in the ranking of crude oil exporters to the United States, a preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has shown.
According to the EIA data on the US crude import rankings in March 2007, Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer and the world's eighth, leaped from fifth place in February to third in March, pushing Saudi Arabia, the world's top exporter into fourth place. Canada and Mexico held on to first and second places, with crude exports to the US of 1.776 million barrels per day (b/d), down 64,000 b/d from February, and 1.621 million b/d -- 263,000 b/d up from February.
But Saudi Arabia, with an average 1.231 million b/d in March, found itself behind Nigeria with 1.29 million b/d. US crude imports from the kingdom had dipped by 374,000 b/d in February to average 1.185 million b/d over that month, recovering by just 46,000 b/d in March. Volumes from Nigeria were up 229,000 b/d from February's 1.061 million b/d.
Venezuela took fifth place with 1.036 million b/d, down from February's 1.115 million b/d.
The EIA data also showed the remaining countries on the list of top ten crude exporters to the US all supplied volumes well below the million b/d level. In sixth place was Angola with 696,000 b/d, up from 451,000 b/d in February.
Iraq took seventh place, boosting crude exports to the US to 523,000 b/d from 325,000 b/d in February.
Algeria was in eighth place, boosting volumes to 501,000 b/d in March from 392,000 b/d the previous month. Kuwait and Brazil took ninth and tenth place respectively, with 288,000 b/d -- up from 158,000 b/d-- and 209,000 b/d -- a doubling of February's 103,000 b/d.
