The import of Nigerian crude oil by the United States rose by 48 per cent to 112.92 million barrels last year, the highest annual level in five years, The Punch reports.

The latest data from the US Energy Information Administration showed that the country imported 75.81 million barrels of Nigerian oil in 2016, up from 19.86 million barrels in 2015. US import of Nigerian crude started to fall from 2013 on the back of the shale oil boom, the data showed.

Last month, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had however said that Nigeria had forever lost the United States as a significant crude export market. “That’s gone,” Kachikwu was quoted by Platts to have said during a news conference at the CERAWeek in Houston, Texas, United States.

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