A new document by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has revealed Netherlands, Spain and India as top buyers of Nigeria’s crude oil.
The countries join about 56 countries as popular destinations for the commodity.
The countries that patronize Nigeria for its crude oil cover Western Europe, Oceania/Pacific, South America, North America, Middle East, Asia and the Far East and Africa.
The latest Annual Statistical Bulletin (ASB) produced by the national oil company showed that India was the top buyer of crude oil in the 2020 trading year with 107.89 million barrels, followed by the Netherlands with 73 million barrels, and Spain with 70.4 million barrels.
The oil sector still accounts for about 90 per cent of total exports even though past governments have tried to diversify the economy.
The commodity also accounts for over 86 per cent of foreign exchange earnings and a paltry 9.61 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The data also showed that South Africa came a close fourth with 68.3 million barrels, Italy purchased 32.5 million barrels, while China bought a total of 29.6 million barrels from Nigeria in 2020.
Other countries listed as consumers of Nigeria’s crude are the United Kingdom with 24.3 million barrels, Cote d’Ivoire with 20.4 million barrels, France with 19.7 million barrels, Singapore which bought 19.4 million barrels and the United States Gulf Coast with a cumulative purchase of 19.4 million barrels.
Togo bought 17.3 million barrels, Portugal purchased 14.8 million barrels, and Turkey’s total transaction for the year was 18.1 million barrels, followed by Indonesia’s 17.1 million barrels.
Included also on the list of buyers were Germany, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Australia, Peru, Uruguay, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar.
Brazil, a top oil producer, bought the least quantity of 266,264 barrels. Other Nigerian crude oil customers included the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Ghana and Senegal.
Out of the 648.5 million barrels of oil lifted in 2020, Western Europe had the highest percentage of 42 per cent, followed by Asia with 31.2 per cent, Africa with 18.28 per cent and North America having the lowest with 5.7 per cent.
Furthermore, an analysis of Nigeria’s 10-year crude oil production revealed that the country produced about 8.425 billion barrels during the period 2010-2020.
In terms of exploration activities, a total of 81 wells were drilled, including 76 development wells and five exploratory wells.
Exploration was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that began last year.
Total crude oil and condensate production for the year were 644.3 barrels, giving a daily average of 1.76 million BPD, lower than the 2019 production by 12.36 per cent.
Production by fiscal regime showed that Joint Ventures (JVs) contributed 208 million barrels, Alternative Financing (AF) contributed 68.8 million barrels, Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) contributed 254.7 million barrels, Independents and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) contributed 93.4 million barrels while marginal fields added 19.3 million barrels.
In the gas sector, a total of 2,729.1 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in 2020, indicating a decrease of 4.74 per cent when compared with 2019 production of 2,864.93 BCF.
The estimated average daily consumption for 2020 was 60 million litres of petrol, 14.1 million litres of diesel and 740,316 litres of household kerosene per day.
The low sulphur content in Nigeria’s crude oil makes it competitive in the international market.
The current push for renewable sources of energy by 2050 by developed countries remains a major challenge for the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
