Termination Of US Oil Imports Could Spell Chaos For Nigeria, Experts Say

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.

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.