Kenya, Sudan, Algeria, Ghana others shrinking Nigeria’s crude oil exports market
In the last one year, many African economies with oil resources have stepped up explorations in partnership with leading international oil companies.
The economies are beginning to reap from their structured and deep pocket investments in oil and gas, thus rising to become a serious threat to Nigeria’s economic mainstay which is oil revenue as more African crude oil exporters drag market share with Nigeria.
Few months ago, South Sudan sealed several oil exploration deals with IOCs. Ghana has also deepened exploration and local refining. Algeria recently achieved record sustainability in local refining and export of crude.
Analysts say with speed and technologies African oil economies are moving, they may soon begin to takeover key Nigerian crude oil buyers including India and others.
Only earlier this week, Kenya exported its first batch of crude oil.
President Uhuru Kenyatta flagged off the crude shipment from the port of Mombasa on Monday.
Oil and gas pundits describe the feat as historic and an important step on the way to the full exploration and development of oil in the East African nation.
Observers say this is an experimental phase to test the country’s crude oil before full production and exportation begins in around 2024.
By the feat, Kenya is expected to earn $84m (£69m) over the next two years.
Business Hilights gathered that a UK-based Chinese company ChemChina UK Ltd won the bid to buy the first batch of 240,000 barrels under the Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS).
Oil bids were received from firms in Asia and Europe, but the joint oil production consortium, led by explorer Tullow Oil, awarded the contract to ChemChina.
The crude was transported 850km (528 miles) by road from the country’s north-western oil fields in Turkana to Mombasa.
Though Kenya currently does not have an oil pipeline in place, Tullow estimates that Kenya’s fields in Turkana hold up to 560 million barrels of oil and expects to produce up to 100,000 barrels per day from 2022.
