US to double imports from Nigeria to replace Saudi oil

A leading energy analyst said the United States plans to double imports from Nigeria in an effort to replace dependence on Saudi Arabia. Paul Michael Wihbey, a member of the African Oil Policy Initiative Group, said the United States intends to double imports from Nigeria from the current 900,000 bpd to 1.8 mm in 2007.
Wihbey said Washington is drafting a new energy security policy that will see Nigeria replace Saudi Arabia as major crude oil supplier.

"Statistics from the US Department of Energy showed African oil exports to the US will rise to 50 % of total oil supply by 2015," Wihbey said in a lecture in Lagos earlier this month. "Nigeria is the energy superpower of Africa. The private sector, small and major operators, administration and officials have come to realize that Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea are of strategic importance to the US."
Saudi Arabia is the largest oil exporter of crude oil and the second biggest supplier to the United States. Nigeria is the fifth largest oil supplier to the United States.