Nigeria’s crude oil output increases by 63,000bpd with export of low sulphur Nembe oil grade to France, Netherlands

Oredola Adeola

Nigeria’s crude oil export has increased by around 63,000barrel per day (bpd) with the introduction of Nembe, low Sulphur Crude Oil Grade, exported to refineries in France and Netherlands.

This was disclosed in a statement released by Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer NNPC Ltd, and obtained by EnergyDay on Tuesday.

In September,2020, data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) showed that the country’s oil production increased to 1,346,562 million barrels per day, the highest production level since the year began.

The statement was made following the announcement by Nembe Crude Oil Blend, produced by Aiteo, the Operator of the NNPC/Aiteo Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 Joint Venture (JV), at the ongoing Argus European Crude Conference in London, on Tuesday.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd, in the statement announced the introduction of Nembe Crude Oil Grade, a new crude oil grade into the international crude oil market.

It also revealed that the 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.

EnergyDay gathered that the Nembe Crude was previously blended with the popular Bonny Light grade and exported via the Bonny Oil & Gas Terminal.

NNPCL emphasised that the unique selling point of the Nembe Crude Oil grade with an API gravity was highlighted by both the Aiteo E & P and NNPC Limited Leadership at the Argus Conference in London.

It said, “The Nembe Crude Oil grade also 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.

“Two cargoes of 950,000 barrels each of the Nembe Crude Oil grade have since been exported to France and the Netherlands. 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 2 Cargoes at 950,000 barrels each per month and 1.2 Bcf of export gas monthly,” it said.

The NNPCL further disclosed that the achievement 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.

It said, ” The terminal was conceived as a Floating Storage and Offloading Vessel (FSO) with a storage capacity of two (2) 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.

“Currently, hydrocarbon production from OML 29, which was hitherto constrained due to evacuation challenges owing to the security issues around the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) corridor.

“The corridor has now been debottlenecking through a collaborative and creative approach that led to the innovation of the Alternative Crude Oil Evacuation Solution,” NNPCL said.

EnergyDay further gathered that the Argus European Crude Conference 2023 in London is a gathering of energy majors, refiners, NOCs, traders, financial institutions, and other representatives from across the global oil markets.