Nigeria’s crude exports outside of the country have fallen to their lowest reading in a year, averaging 1.2 million b/d this month to date, adversely affected by an explosion at the Escravos-Lagos pipeline earlier in December.
Luckily, the country’s only operational refinery – the 650,000 b/d Dangote plant – has been mopping up Nigerian grades, importing 1.7 million tonnes this month, the highest on record.
Nigerian crude has been faced with extremely tepid buying demand lately as there remain at least 20 unsold January-loading cargoes, out of the total 48 planned loadings.
According to statistics from Nigeria’s upstream regulator NUPRC, crude production in the West African country fell to 1.4 million b/d in September-October after peaking at 1.54 million b/d in January.
Dangote coming to the rescue of upstream producers might also shed a light on the recent ouster of Nigeria’s upstream and downstream regulatory bodies following their criticism of Aliko Dangote.
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