It is well known that the USA has drastically reduced its imports of crude oil as domestic production returns to levels not seen in 30 years. But the producers of the crude that the USA no longer buys are starting to feel the pinch.

Nigeria has been one of the losers. The USA was top of the list in of customers in 2012 when it took $3.76 billion worth of Nigerian crude in Q1 alone. In Q1 2014, the USA was in 10th position with only $909.8 million of crude imports.

The Nigerians are not only lamenting the loss of sales. The abundance of crude in a major market like the USA has put pressure on the price of crude oil, with Brent hovering around $100.

Nigeria produces about 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day. it was selling up to half that to the USA, but sales are now down to about 400,000bpd.

The problem is, crude oil sales are by far the major source of Nigerian GDP. The same scenario will be true for several other nations that are heavily oil-dependent for their GDP - reduced demand from the USA cannot be easily replaced.

In Nigeria’s case, they are selling more to India. From almost nothing in 2012, Nigeria sold $3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2014.