Nigeria Overtakes Venezuela in Oil Exports to US

WASHINGTON: Nigeria surpassed Venezuela as the fourth largest foreign supplier of crude oil to the United States for the first five months of 2008, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude oil imports from Nigeria averaged 1.05 million barrels per day from January to May, virtually unchanged from the same period last year. Nigeria accounted for 10.8 percent of all US imports of crude oil for that period, the EIA said in its weekly review of the oil market.

However, Venezuelan exports have fallen sharply to an average of 990,000 bpd to the United States through May, down 10 percent from the same period in 2007. For years, Venezuela had been the fourth biggest oil exporter to the US market.

But increased oil shipments to other countries or lagging domestic production may account for Venezuela's market share of US oil imports falling to 10.2 percent this year. Overall, US oil imports were down by 3 percent through the first five months of this year because of lower demand due to higher energy prices and a slowing economy.

Imports in May alone were down more than 6 percent from a year earlier. While total imports were down, the major suppliers accounted for a bigger share of US oil imports. About 75 percent of US oil imports come from six countries: Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela and Iraq.

Reuters