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The 11th and final
country to join the
Organization of
Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) in
1971, Nigeria's 25
billion barrels of
proven oil reserves
place it among the
world's top
oil-producing nations.
The country plans to
boost its oil reserves
to at least 40 billion
barrels by 2010 after
recently discovering
large oil deposits in
deeper offshore waters,
according to OPEC and
the Nigerian Ministry of
Petroleum Resources.
Nigeria's economy is
heavily dependent on its
oil sector, which
accounts for some 90
percent of export
revenues and 41 percent
of its gross domestic
product, according to a
2002 report by the World
Bank and information
from the Nigerian
Ministry of Petroleum
Resources.
The United States is
Nigeria's top export
partner. Nigeria in 2002
ranked as the U.S.'s
fifth-largest oil
supplier, although its
exports have dropped by
8 percent since 1997,
according to the Central
Bank of Nigeria. The
U.S. Office of Trade
characterizes
Nigerian-American
commercial relations as
"essentially strong,"
noting that U.S. imports
from Nigeria, mostly
oil, totaled $5 billion
for the first half of 2001.
Despite its relative
abundance of natural
resources, the expansion
of Nigeria's oil sector
has been stymied by its
antiquated
infrastructure and the
"frustratingly slow"
movement of goods
through Nigeria's major
ports, according to the
U.S. Office of Trade in
2002. The U.S.
government attributes
these problems — which
continue in 2003,
according to the U.S.
Department of Energy —
to mismanagement during
the dictatorship of
General Sani Abacha from
1993 to 1998.
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