China’s Oil Imports From Nigeria Falls

China’s crude oil import from Nigeria dropped by 7.5 percent from 11.41 million barrels in 2014 to 10.56 million barrels last year, information gathered from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC ) has shown.

According to figures made public by NNPC, China, the world’s largest energy consumer bought crude from Nigeria for just five months in 2015 compared with a nine months purchase in 2014.

A breakdown of the 2015 import showed that the largest volume of 3.9 million barrels was  in October and it dropped 2.85 million barrels in February.

China’s crude purchase fell to 949,721 barrels in March, dropped to 948,024 barrels in July only to increase its order to 1.9 million barrels in December.

The highest export of Nigerian crude to China in 2014 was 1.96 million barrels in January as revealed by the NNPC.

Last year, the Asian country imported a record amount of crude oil, an opportunity created by the drastic fall in price which was below a 10 year annual moving average.

China’s global import of crude last year increased by 8.8 per cent to 334 million metric tons, or about 6.7 million barrels per day, according to data sourced from the Beijing-based, General Administration of Customs in January.

The country had earlier this month said it would seek to buy more crude oil from Nigeria in spite of the recent changes in prices or the re-admittance of Iran to start producing.

The Economic and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Zao LingXiang, said,“In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter whether Iran comes back or not; Chinese companies want to import more crude oil from Nigeria”.