Petroleum Industry in Nigeria - Current Manufacturing

Current Manufacturing

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and has been a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries since 1971. The Nigerian economy is heavily dependent on the oil sector, which, accounts for over 95 percent of export earnings and about 40 percent of government revenues, according to the International Monetary Fund. According to the International Energy Agency, Nigeria produced about 2.53 million barrels per day, well below its oil production capacity of over 3 million barrels per day, in 2011. Nigeria is an important oil supplier to the United States. For the last nine years, the United States has imported between 9-11 percent of its crude oil from Nigeria; however, United States import data for the first half of 2012 show that Nigerian crude is down to a 5 percent share of total United States crude imports. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2011, approximately 33 percent of Nigeria's crude exports were sent to the United States, making Nigeria its fourth largest foreign oil supplier. Although total crude imports into the United States are falling, imports from Nigeria have declined at a steeper rate, according to the International Energy Agency. The main reasons underlying this trend are that some Gulf Coast refiners have reduced Nigerian imports in favor of domestically-produced crude, and that two refineries in the U.S. East Coast, which were significant buyers of Nigerian crude, were idled in late 2011. As a result, Nigerian crude as a share of total United States imports has fallen to 5 percent in the first half of 2012, down from 10 and 11 percent in the first half of 2011 and 2010, respectively, according to the International Energy Agency. According to the CIA World Factbook, Nigeria’s main export partners are the United States, India, Brazil, Spain, France and the Netherlands. Shell has been working in Nigeria since 1936, and currently dominates gas production in the country, as the Niger Delta, which contains most of Nigeria's gas resources, also houses most of Shell's hydrocarbon assets.