THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has introduced Nembe Crude Oil Grade, a new crude oil grade, into the international crude oil market.
Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye, stated this in a statement he signed on November 8, 2023.
He said two cargoes of 950,000 barrels each of the Nembe Crude Oil grade had been exported to France and the Netherlands.
He stated that the announcement of the Nembe Crude Oil Blend, produced by Aiteo, the Operator of the NNPC/Aiteo Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 Joint Venture (JV), was made at the ongoing Argus European Crude Conference in London on Tuesday, November 7.
“OML 29, an asset located onshore Nigeria, is operated by Aiteo Eastern Exploration & Production Ltd., Africa’s leading indigenous hydrocarbon producer, following a historic acquisition from Shell in 2014. The Nembe Crude was previously blended with the popular Bonny Light grade and exported via the Bonny Oil & Gas Terminal,” he said.
Soneye explained that the crude oil grade had a low sulphur content and low carbon footprint due to flare gas elimination, fitting into the required spec of major European buyers.
“With its attractive Assay of API 29 and low sulphur content, the Nembe Crude Oil grade commands a premium to the global Brent benchmark. With the NNPC-Aiteo OML 29 JV back onstream, Nigeria now boasts of an additional crude oil export of two Cargoes at 950,000 barrels each per month and 1.2 Bcf of export gas monthly,” he said.
According to Soneye, the development signals the commencement of activities at Nigeria’s newest crude oil terminal, the Nembe Crude Oil Export Terminal (NCOET), which was licensed in line with the extant laws and crude oil terminal establishment regulations.
The terminal, he said, was conceived as a floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO) with a storage capacity of two million barrels and the ability to offload crude oil to any export tanker from AFRAMAX to very large crude carriers (VLCC).
It has a loading capacity of 25,000 barrels per hour and will be exporting over 3.6 million barrels of crude oil monthly at full scale of operation.
This development, he said, would enable Nigeria to meet up with its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota of 1.7 million barrels/ per day and provide more foreign exchange to solve the country’s currency problems.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.