US tight oil production leaving Nigeria under pressure

Rising tight-oil production in the US threatens to unravel Nigeria’s oil exports

North America’s soaring tight-oil production is changing the US energy dynamic and the shift is causing problems for an important global crude benchmark: Nigerian Bonny Light.  Named for the city of Bonny on the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s light sweet crude accounted for 1 million barrels per day (b/d), or 10%, of US oil imports in 2010. But its market share has fallen to barely 5% in less than three years, displaced by a flood of new barrels from US tight-oil plays. Five years ago, US imports of Nigerian oil were as high as 1.2m b/d, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). By December 2012, they had reached  230,000 b/d, the lowest level since 1987. Nigeria has now slipped behi