Nigeria’s independent oil producers are being crushed by the oil price crash, with current prices more than two times lower than the costs of local independents’ production. These small independent oil companies pump a fifth of the oil in Africa’s largest oil producer. “The impact is a complete and utter disaster,” Kola Karim, CEO at Nigeria’s third-largest independent oil firm, Shoreline Group, told Bloomberg in an interview published on Friday. The independent companies in Nigeria are struggling to stay afloat at benchmark Brent Crude in the $20s, which means Nigeria’s barrels are sold in the teens. And that’s if there is buying interest at all amid the growing global glut and crashing demand. Independent firms produce around 400,000 bpd out of the 2 million bpd that OPEC member Nigeria pumps. But independents need oil prices at $35 to $40 per barrel to cover their cost of production, compared to […]