Shale oil boom boosts US fuel exports to Nigeria, others

Not only has the United States (US) significantly reduced its imports of Nigeria’s crude oil on the back of its rising shale oil production, it has also started increasing its exports of refined fuel to the country and other West African countries, in what is seen as a huge threat to European refiners’ dominance of the region’s market.

US exports to West Africa shot up in July to around 45,000 barrels per day (bpd) from an average of around 6,000 bpd in 2012, according to trading sources and US Energy Information Administration data. While European fuel exports, which averaged 175,000 bpd in 2012, have declined by around 10 percent so far this year, traders told Reuters.

At least four tankers, amounting to over 150,000 tons of premium motor spirit (petrol), are heading or are planned to leave the US Gulf to West Africa this month, according to shipping data, seven times higher than the 2012 monthly average, with Nigeria absorbing most of the exported volumes.

West African demand for fuel averaged 260,000 bpd in 2012, of which around 230,000 bpd went to Nigeria, and was expected to rise this year, according to traders.