China is seeking more crude oil exports from Nigeria in spite of the recent changes in oil prices, the Chinese Embassy’s Economic and Commercial Counsellor, Mr Zao Ling Xiang, said at the weekend.

“The total amount of export to China is only about one million barrels in 2015 that was just 1.3 per cent of Nigerian annual oil export.

“In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter whether Iran comes back or not; Chinese companies want to import more crude oil from Nigeria,” Lin Xiang said.

The trade volume between both countries stands at $14.94 billion (2014), making Nigeria China’s third largest trade partner in Africa.

The economic counsellor added that Nigeria’s trade figure was 8.3 per cent of China’s total trade volume with Africa and 42 per cent of the total trade volume between China and Africa.

Besides, both countries have made “remarkable achievements” in infrastructure cooperation.

Lin Xiang said President Muhammadu Buhari’s planned visit to China next month will facilitate the implementation of agreements reached at the 2015 China-African Summit in Johannesburg.

He said China also sought to explore other areas of cooperation with Nigeria, adding:

“China is the largest developing country in the world and Nigeria is the largest developing country in Africa and both countries have complementary advantages in natural and human resources, funds and markets.

“Right now, the Nigerian Government is trying to diversify its economy, which is fully in line with the 10 China-Africa cooperation plans announced at the summit on China-Africa trade in Johannesburg in 2015.

“There are great potential for cooperation between China and Nigeria in the fields of industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure construction, financial services, trade and investment facilitation, among others.”

LinXiang explained that the total investment volume between China and Africa exceeded 100 billion U.S dollars in 2015, in spite of the decline in imports from Africa.

His words: “The amount in import from Africa to China declined but did not decline remarkably. Moreover, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa is not only about trade but technical cooperation as well.

“China’s total investment volume in Africa last year increased by 100 times more in a short span of 10 years, which shows that cooperation between both parties is moving to a new level.”

Source: The Nation