After drastically reducing its imports of crude oil from Nigeria a few years ago, the United States is now exporting more crude than Africa’s top oil producer, The Punch reports.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm of the US Energy Department, on Wednesday said that US crude oil exports rose by 582,000 barrels per day last week to an all-time record high of 2.331 million bpd.

Loading programmes compiled by Reuters showed that Nigeria’s planned crude oil exports for April stood at 1.61 million bpd. The country’s exports are expected to fall slightly in June to 1.796 million bpd, compared with the 1.895 million bpd in May’s revised export programme.

The push to ship more crude abroad follows the widening spread between the global benchmark, Brent, and US marker, West Texas Intermediate, from around $3 per barrel in early March to more than $6 per barrel this week.

Reuters had on Monday quoted traders as saying that the relatively high oil prices, coupled with the surging US output, were making it harder to sell Russian, Nigerian and other oil grades in Europe, where the US oil flooded.

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