THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) said it had unveiled and shipped new crude oil grade into the international crude oil market amid demand constraints for crude oil by local refineries.

The NNPCL’s chief corporate communications officer, Olufemi Soneye, disclosed this in a statement on Monday, August 5.

He said, “The new Utapate crude oil blend commenced operations in July 2024, as its first cargo headed for Spain.”

The Utapate crude oil blend is from Oil Mining Lease (OML) 13, fully operated by NNPCL Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL), an NNPCL’s upstream subsidiary.

It is located offshore Akwa Ibom State with a current crude oil production capacity of 28,000 barrels per day (bpd), with the potential to increase it to 50,000 bpd.

According to Soneye, the Utapate crude oil blend has a sulphur content of  0.0655 per cent.

“Spanish oil giant Repsol won the tender for the initial cargo of the new crude blend which is comparable to the much sought-after Amenam crude,” he said.

The  Gulf Transport and Trading, another leading crude oil dealer, has secured the cargoes’ tenders for August and September 2024, Soneye said.

He recalled that during the Argus European Crude Conference in London last year, NNPCL announced the unveiling of Nembe crude oil, produced by the NNPC/Aiteo-operated Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 Joint Venture (JV).

“Similar to the Nembe crude oil grade, the Utapate crude oil blend has a low sulphur content and low carbon footprint due to flare gas elimination, fitting perfectly into the required spec of major buyers in Europe.

“This remarkable achievement signals the commitment of the NNPC Ltd to increase Nigeria’s crude oil production and grow reserves through the development of new assets,” Soneye said.

However, despite having four refineries, Nigeria exports crude oil and imports refined petroleum products, which has been ongoing over the years.

The country’s inability to refine crude oil production from its soil has negatively impacted its economy.

According to analysts, Nigeria would have earned more foreign exchange if it refined its crude oil rather than exported it, which creates an imbalance in the foreign exchange earnings and leads to volatility in the Nigerian currency market.

The recent outburst between the Nigeria oil and gas regulatory authorities and the management of Dangote Refinery over the secret opening of a blending plant in Malta by some officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), oil traders, and terminals is a concern fresh in the minďs of Nigerians.

The revelation came following the Dangote Refinery’s struggle to get crude oil for its 650,000-capacity built refinery.

The ICIR had reported that the Dangote Group had been at loggerheads over getting crude oil to commence the refining of petroleum products.

The refinery had repeatedly postponed the date for the commencement of refined petroleum products and hopes to start this August.

“If the Dangote Refinery starts to work, it means there will be no business or Malta. Malta is the reason why your naira is weak,” a development economist, Kalu Aja, said in his official X account while reacting to the problems with fuel import, The ICIR reported.

While supplying crude to local refineries seems a recent challenge, a long-time worry has been not meeting its OPEC-assigned crude oil production quota, currently set at 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd).

Nigeria’s daily crude oil production dropped to 1.27 million bpd in the second quarter (Q2) of the year compared to 1.33 million bpd production in the first quarter (Q1), findings by The ICIR show.

The shortfalls in crude oil production directly affect the country’s budgeted revenue from crude oil, which is a major source of income for the government.

Between January and May this year, Nigeria lost over N16 billion in revenue daily from crude oil production, The ICIR reported.

In a recent revelation, Vice-President Kashim Shettima said Nigeria spends $25 billion per annum on the importation of petroleum products.