The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on Wednesday said the lingering conflict between Russia and Ukraine has impacted Nigerian crude oil inflows from the international oil market.
Olufemi Soneye, the chief corporate communications officer of NNPCL, in a statement Wednesday night, said, this has led to a dip in demand from the once-dependable Asian market at the onset of hostilities in the Eastern bloc.
Mr Soneye said the Executive Director, Crude & Condensate, NNPC Trading Limited, Maryamu Idris, said this in a panel presentation at the Argus European Crude Conference in London. She added that in addition to the substantial price shocks impacting commodity and energy prices globally, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has triggered a situation where India, a primary destination for Nigerian grades, increased its appetite for discounted Russian barrels to the detriment of some Nigerian volumes.
“To illustrate the extent of this shift, Nigeria’s crude exports to India dwindled from approximately 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the six months preceding the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine to 194,000 in the subsequent six months afterwards. And so far, this year, only around 120,000 bpd of Nigerian crude volumes have made their way to India,” she said.
On the other hand, she noted that the Nigerian crude flow to Europe has increased in a bid to fill supply gaps left by the ban on Russian crude, pointing out that six months before the war, 678,000 bpd of Nigerian crude grades went to Europe, compared to 710,000 bpd six months later and 730,000 bpd so far this year.
Credit: premiumtimesng.com
