With
efforts towards lifting the almost 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports in the
United States (US) gaining traction, Nigeria and other oil exporting West
African countries stand to lose a share of the global crude oil export market
when US crude exports come online.
Late
last month, the US Commerce Department granted licences for the export of
ultra-light crude oil or condensates to two Texas-based companies, Pioneer
Natural Resources and Enterprise Products Partners, from August this year, in
what is the first step towards easing the ban on exporting unrefined oil that
was enacted after the 1973 Arab oil embargo to curb rising fuel prices.
The
decline in US imports of Nigerian crude has
