Nigeria to ban importation of $300 million worth of barite from Morocco

Olamilekan Adegbite, the Nigerian minister of Mines and Steel Development, announced that his government plans to ban the importation of barite from Morocco. The decision is expected to help the West African country save foreign exchange for other purposes. 

The minister revealed that his country imports $300 million worth of barite annually from Morocco, local online newspapers Nairametrics reports.

Nigeria uses barite in the oil and gas industry as a weighting agent for drilling fluids in the upstream sector. 

Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria «banned the importation of maize for the same reason as Nigeria aims to save foreign exchange in an era of falling oil revenue and OPEC production cuts», the same source added.

«We have barite all over the country (in Nasarawa, Cross River States); so, why can’t we produce our barite. There are standards required by the industry and we have it», Olamilekan Adegbite asked.

Morocco is one of the world's largest producers of this mineral alongside China, India and the United States. Barite is extracted from mines located in the Midelt region.