[ Business ] USA Finally Reveals: Why We Stopped Buying Nigeria's Oil

Amazingly, United State Government officials have finally explained why the country suddenly ended its dependence on Nigeria for oil imports. It will be recalled that the US government abruptly terminated oil importation from Nigeria since July, which led to local concerns over the political relationship between Nigeria and USA, and the implication on diplomatic relations.

White House Director for National Economic Council, Mr. Jeff Zients, said the cessation of Nigeria's oil imports was due to the significant increase in US oil production.


According to the director, “across the last several years, US oil production has ramped up significantly by more than 50 percent to now over eight and a half million barrels per day.”

Essentially, local oil production in the US “has now dramatically reduced our dependency on imports,” Zients noted, adding that “in fact, we now produce more here than we import.”

The Nigerian Guardian says:

The White House official stated that the development is consistent with President Barack Obama’s energy strategy, which has changed “quite a bit over the last few years as we are much less dependent on oil imports.”

That strategy has not only left Nigeria in the lurch, but has generally also driven down the international market price of oil to a ridiculous $60 range by the close of trading on Friday. Oil price, which soared around $100 in September, is now $56.52 for the WTI Crude and $61.38 for the Brent Crude oil.

But Zients and the other US officials at the press briefing did not address the issue of the ongoing importation from other oil producing nations, including OPEC members like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and non-OPEC suppliers like Canada. In fact, as at last month, it was reported that, while US completely halted oil imports from Nigeria, it increased its importation from those three countries.

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