India has overtaken the United States as the largest importer of Nigeria’s oil, the West African state’s national oil company has said.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, as saying that US has “drastically reduced” its demand for Nigeria’s crude oil in recent months.
Consequently, India now buys considerably more – about 30 per cent of the country’s 2.5 million barrels of production.
The country is currently buying about 250,000 barrels a day.
US demand for imported oil has fallen sharply because of increasing domestic shale gas and oil production, so much so that the International Energy Agency and oil giant, BP, both forecast that the country will be largely energy independent by 2035.
