Experts say the termination of United States
importation of Nigerian oil, which has serviced
the relationship between both countries for
decades, has already imposed significant
difficulties on Nigeria, with worse to come.
Tullow Oil Workers
According to an article just published on
nbcnews.com , only 4.5 million barrels of
Nigeria’s prized oil arrived at U.S. ports in April,
although 40 million barrels had been imported
seven years earlier. By July, just three months
later, Nigerian importation had been completely
replaced by local US production.
“The big fat zero was a milestone not only on
the United States' journey toward energy
independence, but a signpost pointing to a new
world,” wrote Robert Windrem, an investigative
reporter/producer with NBC News.
He described the milestone as making Nigeria
“the first formerly flush oil producer to
essentially lose its entire share of the U.S.
market, leaving it scrambling for new customers,
less able to fund its internal war on terror and
less important to the U.S.”
Also commenting on the matter, John Campbell,
a former US ambassador to Nigeria, said: "The
collapse of the price of oil brought on by the rise
in American production is fundamentally
changing the world. This energy shift is akin to
the collapse of the Soviet Union in its foreign
policy implications."
Campbell observed that Nigeria could descend
into chaos if the price of oil falls beyond its
current $78-a-barrel price, because the country’s
finances already have been pushed to the
breaking point by oil "bunkering" (theft by
Nigerian officials.)
"That oil finances the patronage, clientage
network," Windrem quoted him as saying. "It is
all illegal (but) it's the grease to the system, and
as the value falls … the grease dries up and the
system doesn't work."
Similarly, Carl Levan, a professor at American
University and author of "Dictators and
Democracy in African Development," said that
turmoil in Nigeria could quickly spread through
West Africa, noting that the region is already
beset by long-running civil wars, an Ebola
epidemic and political crises.
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