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Nigeria Largest Importer of Kerosene From America, In the Month of October

Published

9 years ago

January 5, 2015

Last October monthly import of kerosene from the United States to Nigeria had hit the highest mark since 1995, BusinessNews informs.
The latest estimates based on the data of the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the US Energy Department.
According to it the country imported about 309,000 barrels of kerosene from the US, emerging the largest importer of the fuel from America in the month of October.
The next biggest importers of US kerosene are Canada, which imported 6,000 barrels and Liberia with 4,000 barrels. Australia, Colombia, Netherlands, Russia and Kazakhstan imported just 1,000 barrels each.
The figures show that Nigeria imported a total of 1.118 million barrels of US kerosene from January to October. 1.040 million barrels were imported in 2013 while 272,000 barrels were imported in 2012; 1,000 barrels in 2009; 4,000 barrels in 2008; and 1,000 barrels in 1995
Mr. Dolapo Oni, an energy specialist at Ecobank says: “As oil production in the US rises, we can see more fuel exports to Nigeria from US refiners looking for markets for their fuel. We can see a faster fall in the landing cost of fuel products as US oil production increases”.
In other words, Nigeria depends on importation to meet domestic fuel demand, creating a lucrative market for refiners in the US, Europe and other African countries.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, fuel import bills increased by 50.2 per cent to $4.01bn in the second quarter of the year from $2.67bn in the first quarter.
The CBN says: “The growth in oil sector imports was mainly facilitated by the low domestic refining capacity, which induced increased importation of fuel to meet domestic demand”.
It is well-known that industry analysts and stakeholders have continued to stress the need to deregulate the downstream sector of the industry to attract private investment in order to ramp up the country’s refining capacity.