More trouble are still building up for Nigerian crude oil sales as India, formally Nigeria’s highest buyers are steadily slashing quotas from Nigeria.
Otherwise, Nigeria’s oil supply to India hit its lowest level for this year, with the Asian country intensifying effort to diversify its sources of the commodity.
Before now, India has remained the single largest buyer of Nigerian crude oil in the past few years after the United States slashed its imports from the country on the back of shale oil production boom.
Latest monthly report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) showed that India lost its spot as Nigeria’s biggest oil buyer to the US.
Details gathered by our correspondent showed further that India bought 7.67 million barrels in May, down from 12.49 million barrels the previous month.
India also imported as high as 14.61 million barrels of Nigeria’s crude in January; 11.64 million barrels in February, and 12.63 million barrels in March.
Late last year and December to be exact, Indian import of Nigeria’s crude tumbled by 8.6 million barrels to a record low of 5.82 million barrels, compared to the 10.11 million barrels purchased by Netherlands, which emerged the biggest buyer.
The core reason for the dwindling purchase of Nigerian crude stemmed from the fact that India, the world’s third biggest oil consumer, recently stepped up crude oil purchases from the US as cheaper alternatives have emerged due to a supply glut in the global markets.
