The cash cow of the Nigerian state has been threatened as one of its trading partners in Asia has switched loyalty to the U.S.
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India imported less Nigerian crude oil last month on the back of outages in a couple of major streams such as Bonny Light and Forcados.
Also, Asian buyers opted to take light sweet United States’ oil rather than Nigerian, Reuters reported on Monday.
India’s monthly oil imports from Nigeria declined by about 34 per cent to about 279,000 bpd, according to data from the industry and shipping sources.
Overall India’s monthly oil imports in August rose by 3.1 per cent to about 4.7 million barrels, while they were up 15.8 per cent from a year earlier, the data showed.
India’s imports of the US oil in August rose to a record 275,000 bpd, accounting for about six per cent of its overall purchases.
India refiners had booked the US oil cargoes in June when discount between the US crude future and Brent, the international benchmark, was wide enough to make arbitrage economics feasible for India.
Iraq replaced Saudi Arabia in August as the top oil supplier to India, the data showed, as refiners turned to Iraqi barrels to compensate for a lower intake of Iranian oil ahead of the US sanctions in November.
The US is re-imposing sanctions on Iran following Washington’s decision in May to withdraw from a 2015 international deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme.
While some sanctions were implemented from August 6, those affecting Iran’s petroleum sector take effect only from November 4.
Imports of Iranian oil by India, Tehran’s top oil client after China, fell by about a third to about 523,000 bpd in August from July as state refiners slowed purchases due to a delay in securing government approval to use Iranian ships.