Contrary to claims that the United States had stopped buying Nigeria’s crude oil, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its Third Quarter 2017 Foreign Trade Statistics, revealed that Nigeria exported crude oil to the US valued at N457.732 billion, making the country the second highest buyer of Nigeria’s crude oil in the third quarter of 2017.
India emerged the highest buyer, with the purchase of crude oil valued at N550.88 billion in the period under review; while Nigeria exported crude oil to Spain, Netherlands, France and Indonesia valued at N298.73 billion, N220.52 billion, N178.18 billion and N162.1 billion respectively.
Also, South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom and Italy purchased Nigeria’s crude oil valued at N161.5 billion, N148.9 billion, N107.5 billion and N100.9 billion respectively.
The NBS noted that the structure of Nigeria’s export trade was still dominated by crude oil exports, which contributed N2.972 trillion or 83.17 per cent to the value of total exports in the third quarter of 2017.
