Is Nigeria The First Saudi-Engneered Casualty In The Oil War? -- July 23, 2015

Bloomberg at SeekingAlpha:

• Eni is considering selling all or part of its onshore Nigerian operations as it seeks to divest non-core businesses amid a drop in oil prices
• a deal could raise $2B-$5B
• Eni’s wholly owned subsidiary in the country operates under a joint venture agreement with Nigeria’s state oil company NNPC and ConocoPhillips (COP).

One can track US crude oil imports from Nigeria here, currently about 70,000 bbls/day compared to about 1.2 million bopd from Saudi Arabia.

From wiki:

The petroleum industry in Nigeria is the largest on the African continent. As of 2014, Nigeria's petroleum industry contributes about 14% to its economy.

As of 2000, oil and gas exports accounted for more than 98% of export earnings and about 83% of federal government revenue, as well as generating more than 14% of its GDP. It also provides 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of government budgetary revenues.

Nigeria's proven oil reserves are estimated by the U.S. United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) at between 16 and 22 billion barrels but other sources claim there could be as much as 35.3 billion barrels. Its reserves make Nigeria the tenth most petroleum-rich nation, and by the far the most affluent in Africa. In mid-2001 its crude oil production was averaging around 2.2 million barrels per day.

Wow, old, old data. More from wiki:

Nigeria's petroleum is classified mostly as "light" and "sweet", as the oil is largely free of sulphur.

Nigeria is the largest producer of sweet oil in OPEC. This sweet oil is similar in composition to petroleum extracted from the North Sea.

This crude oil is known as "Bonny light". Names of other Nigerian crudes, all of which are named according to export terminal, are Qua Ibo, Escravos blend, Brass River, Forcados, and Pennington Anfan.

As recently as 2010, Nigeria provided about 10% of overall U.S. oil imports and ranked as the fifth-largest source for oil imports in the U.S. However, Nigeria ceased exports to the US in July, 2014 because of the impact of shale production in America; India is now the largest consumer of Nigerian oil.

For newbies, Bakken oil is "light" and "sweet," just like Nigerian oil. The one thing the US does not need is more light, sweet oil.

It will be interesting to follow the US crude oil imports from Nigeria. There should be minimal changes for the next six months as contracts play out.