The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is finalizing all operational arrangements to facilitate the exportation of a new light, sweet crude grade known as Cawthorne from March this year.
A news report from Reuters quoted the company’s spokesperson, as confirming the move, describing it as part of efforts to increase Nigeria’s crude oil output and consolidate on the nation’s improving crude oil production.
After years of the country’s inability to meet her monthly OPEC quota due to lingering pipeline vandalism, crude theft, and unrest in oil-producing regions, the latest move aligns with the Federal Government’s broader strategy to boost the nation’s oil production and by implication, improve foreign exchange earnings from the oil sector.
The state-controlled oil company’s plan also follows the launch of two other new grades — Utapate in 2024 and Obodo in 2025— as Nigeria continues to explore investment opportunities in the hydrocarbon resources to strengthen rating within OPEC+.
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A source in the know of the plan to commence the export of the new crude grade was quoted by news reports as saying that the Cawthorne crude, with an API gravity of 36.4 that is similar in quality to Nigeria’s Bonny Light, has been scheduled for export as from the third week of March this yer
According to reports, a trader was said to have hinted that the company had issued a tender last week for cargo loading between March 24 and 25 and that the new crude oil grade is expected to be exported through the Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) vessel Cawthorne, with a storage capacity of about 2.2 million barrels.
Industry experts estimated that the new crude oil grade, based on its assessed deposits, could increase Nigeria’s crude and condensate output from roughly 1.65 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 1.7 million bpd this year.
According to latest OPEC data, Nigeria’s crude oil production increased to 1.48 million bpd in January this year, slightly lower than its OPEC+ quota of 1.5 million bpd.
It would be recalled that in November 2024, NNPCL formally launched the Utapate crude oil blend in the international market, describing it as a major breakthrough in Nigeria’s export profile. Before then, precisely in July of the same year, the company and its partner, Sterling Oil Exploration & Energy Production Company (SEEPCO), lifted the first 950,000-barrel cargo of Utapate crude and shipped to Spain.
By industry standards, new crude grades are usually differentiated by sulfur content, API gravity, and production source, thereby enabling producers to target specific refinery configurations and market segments.
