U.S. to Slash Importation of Crude Oil From Nigeria

The United States being one of the biggest consumers of Nigeria’s crude oil last week revealed that it is going to slash the importation of the one million oil barrels crude it imports from Nigeria by 60 per cent.
The implication of the development is that the nations crude exports stands threatened because Nigeria depends on oil proceeds to service over 90 per cent of its annual budget.
By 2020, oil imports could be slashed by as much as 60 per cent, Credit Suisse's Morse, who is counting on Gulf oil production to rise, said at the weekend.

The United States being one of the biggest consumers of Nigeria’s crude oil last week revealed that it is going to slash the importation of the one million oil barrels crude it imports from Nigeria by 60 per cent.
The implication of the development is that the nations crude exports stands threatened because Nigeria depends on oil proceeds to service over 90 per cent of its annual budget.
By 2020, oil imports could be slashed by as much as 60 per cent, Credit Suisse's Morse, who is counting on Gulf oil production to rise, said at the weekend.
Within five years, analysts and executives predict, the newly unlocked fields are expected to produce one million to two million barrels of oil per day, enough to boost U.S. production 20 percent to 40 percent.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates production will grow a more modest 500,000 barrels per day.
Basking in the euphoria of a new drilling technique which is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, the EIA said that this will help to reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude.
Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at oil deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado , Texas and California .
By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day – more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now.
This new drilling is expected to raise U.S. production by at least 20 percent over the next five years. And within 10 years, it could help reduce oil imports by more than half, advancing a goal that has long eluded policymakers.
"That's a significant contribution to energy security," says Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse.
Oil engineers are applying what critics say is an environmentally questionable method developed in recent years to tap natural gas trapped in underground shale. They drill down and horizontally into the rock, then pump water, sand and chemicals into the hole to crack the shale and allow gas to flow up.
Meanwhile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which Nigeria is a strong member, boosted crude output to a two year high in January, a report from global energy observer, Platts, stated on Thursday.
OPEC has kept its official crude production quotas unchanged as oil has risen from the $70s most of last year to a two-year high above $92 last week.
Earlier last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration boosted its estimate for 2010 oil demand growth to 2.39 million barrels a day, which would be the second biggest annual increase in consumption in the past 30 years.