South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA), has revealed that its country is likely halt the importation of crude oil from Nigeria following the lifting of the sanctions imposed on Iran.

“The re-emergence of Iranian crude oil provides options for those willing to buy from Iran. Iranian imports are likely to displace the Nigerian and Saudi Arabian crudes, since they seem to have filled the gap since South Africa stopped importing Iranian crude oil”, Executive Director of the SAPIA, Avhapfani Tshifularo (photo) said.

Data gathered by SAPIA from refiners had revealed that South Africa stopped the importation of crude oil from Iran in 2013, after which its oil imports from Nigeria increased significantly, with Saudi Arabia emerging as the highest exporter of crude to the country.

According to Vanguard News, Nigeria’s woes in terms of falling revenue from crude oil sales is estimated to increase in the next couple of days as Iran is to resume exports to South Africa.

The National Bureau of Statistics in an analysis of Nigeria’s crude oil incomes in the nine-month of 2015, revealed that the country made N1.675 trillion from oil export in Q1, N1.984 trillion in Q2 and N1.611 trillion in Q3 of 2015.

This, however, contradicts export earnings of N3.234 trillion, N3.269 trillion and N3.149 trillion for the first, second and third quarters respectively.

Furthermore the analysis showed that the country earned N505.898 billion in January, N591.964 billion in February, N577.361 billion in March, N698.387 billion in April and N668.526 billion in May while in June, July, August and September, Nigeria’s crude oil export was at N617.364 billion, N572.813 billion, N512.823 billion and N525.857 billion respectively.

Anita Fatunji