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Hope of resumption of crude oil export from Nigeria to the United State of America has been renewed by the president of a Washington-based Global Water and Energy Strategy Team (GWEST), Paul Wihbey.

It would be recalled that the United States stopped importing crude oil from Nigeria based on a number of reasoned proffered by the western country. One of such reasons was that the United States has started its own oil exploration and therefore would not need to import crude oil from Nigeria, since the country was able to meet up with its domestic needs in oil. It was however discovered later that the United States was importing crude oil from other countries like Saudi Arabia.

This put a question Mark on the reason proffered by the United States. The decision of the United States to stop importing crude oil from Nigeria came up during the tenure of the immediate past president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.  Many are of the opinion that the decision was America's way of condemning Nigeria's decision not to allow same-sex marriage.

No one can say specifically why the United States seems to be making a U-turn on fuel importation from Nigeria, but there are indications that the decision has to do with the visit of the present Nigerian president, Muhammad Buhari to United States prior to his election victory and after he was sworn into office. The exact contents of the meetings were not made public, but there are indications that it bothered on fostering better economic relationship between the two countries.

Also, President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to swiftly put in place a new strategic energy policy for export of Nigerian oil to new markets in Asia, while also urging government to resolve the crisis with India, which has expressed its willingness to increase its crude oil import from Nigeria to about $50billion annually.

GWEST President Wihbey, gave the hint of resumption of Nigeria’s crude oil to the U.S., while delivering a lecture with the theme, “The global oil and gas market dynamics: outlook for Nigeria’, at the Emerald Energy Institute of the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State at the weekend.

Wihbey, who before President Buhari’s visit to the U.S., briefed the U.S Marine Corps Command and Staff College, as well as U.S Marine Corps War College, Quantico, Virginia, as an expert on geopolitics of the international energy sector, particularly on Nigeria, explained that if Nigeria establishes credible political institutions, it will in no distance time replace Saudi Arabia as a key oil exporter to the U.S.

He stated that the recent drastic reduction in the price of crude oil, which has adversely affected the Nigerian economy was caused by the decline in commodity super-cycle and China; the U.S. shale production; and Middle East geopolitics like Iranian issue and Saudi Arabia fixation on the Shanghai cooperation organization.

At the lecture, which was chaired by former presidential adviser on petroleum matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, the energy expert said a key component of President Barack Obama and President Buhari’s recent meeting in Washington, is for the resumption of significant volume of crude oil export to the U.S, as Saudi Arabia lean more towards China.