US, Nigeria Oil Deals Threatened

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Odein Ajumogobia (right) and Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Billy Agha, during a meeting of stakeholders in the downstream sector …recently.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Mutallab: U.S., Nigeria Oil Deals Threatened

NASS Ultimatum Expires Soon

Stories by Adeola Yusuf, Correspondent, Lagos
Nigeria Independent Daily

The oil deals between Nigeria and the United States (U.S) are on under threat following the ongoing diplomatic tussle between the two countries over U.S. listing of Nigeria as a terror nation, Daily Independent gathered at the weekend.

Nigeria, which exports over 1 million barrels out of its 1.7 million barrels daily oil production to the U.S. was placed on America’s terror list by the White House after a foiled terror attempt by 23-year old Nigerian, Farouk Abdul Mutallab on Christmas Day.

The Africa’s biggest oil producer has, through its National Assembly, threatened a break of diplomatic ties with the US, if it did not, within one week, remove its name from the list.

A highly dependable source in the Presidency told **Daily Independent** that the “issue about withholding oil to the US is on the cards”.

Although this action may, according to the source, “be the last resort, it cannot, however, be ruled out,” he emphasised.

Nigeria planned to export about 1.7 per cent more of its 14 biggest crude types per day to the United States in February compared with the previous monthed

A preliminary loading schedule obtained by Daily Independent showed that the country, a favoured supplier of oil to the U.S. refiners will, according to the document, have shipments of “Nigeria’s 14 biggest crude grades averaging about 1.965 million barrels a day”.

This new data, according to the loading plans, is equivalent to 55 million barrels for the month; that include at least four cargoes of Forcados delayed from January, meaning 1.931 million barrels a day will load in that month.

Nigerian crude is the light, sweet variety of oil favoured by U.S. refiners for the quantity of gasoline it produces. Production is rising as the country restores output shuttered by rebel attacks earlier last year. The schedules for Pennington, Okono, EA and Abo crude exports in February were not available.

In January, exports of those grades are scheduled to average 203,226 barrels a day. Loading programmes are subject to change. Nigeria has an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC’s) production target of 1.673 million barrels a day.

Meanwhile, China, whose oil demand has been soaring, has been positioning itself to take full advantage of the impending diplomatic disagreement between Nigeria and the United States.

According to Platts, China’s apparent oil demand in November soared 18.7 per cent from a year ago as the country’s economic recovery picked up momentum. November’s surge in oil demand marked the third straight month that the world’s second largest oil consumer posted double-digit yearly growth in oil demand.

Chinese oil demand was estimated to reach 33.67 million mt (8.22 million barrels per day) in November, versus 28.36 million mt a year ago, a Platts analysis of official data showed on December 21.

November oil demand was slightly less than the 33.89 million metric tons (8.01 million b/d) seen in October.

“China has pulled out all the stops this year to be sure that its economy has performed well throughout the global financial crisis. That has had a dramatic impact on oil demand in the country,” said Dave Ernsberger, Platts senior editorial director for Asia. “Lifting demand for oil by double-digits month after month was not Beijing’s goal when it injected half a trillion dollars into its economy this year, but it was one of the most significant consequences.”

The Chinese government’s Yuan 4 trillion ($586 billion) stimulus programme to boost domestic spending and consumption has resulted in greater use of oil products from naphtha to jet fuel, prompting the International Energy Agency (IEA) to raise its forecast for China’s oil demand by about 80,000 b/d on average for both this year and 2010, the agency said in its December monthly report released earlier this month.

Meanwhile, China seemed to be tapping into its inventory to feed the strong crude throughput appetite in November as the government reported a drop in both crude imports and production versus October.

Chinese customs tallied 17.12 million mt (4.06 million b/d) of crude imports last month, down 11.4% from 19.33 million mt in October. Crude production also slipped 3.6 per cenrduring the comparison period to 15.67 million mt (3.7 million b/d).

The amount of oil products imports last month, at 2.62 million mt, was at its lowest since November 2008, suggesting that the country was looking less to overseas markets to meet domestic oil products requirement.