… Commences export with two 950,000 barrels cargoes to France, Netherlands.
Nigeria on Tuesday added another blend to her ‘Bonny Light Sweet crude’ as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its indigenous joint venture partner, Aiteo Eastern Exploration & Production Ltd, introduced the Nembe Crude Oil Grade into the international crude oil market.
The unveiling of the Nembe Crude Oil Blend was made at the ongoing Argus European Crude Conference in London by its producer Aiteo, the Operator of the NNPC/Aiteo Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 Joint Venture (JV), an asset located onshore Nigeria.
Aiteo, reputed to be Africa’s leading indigenous hydrocarbon producer from Nigeria acquired the asset from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in 2014.
A statement by the NNPCL through its Chief Corporate Communications Officer Olufemi Soneye, said the Nembe crude oil was previously blended with the popular ‘Bonny Light grade’ 1and exported via the Bonny Oil & Gas Terminal.
Soneye said the unique selling point of the Nembe Crude Oil grade, which has with an American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity measuring the crude oil density, was highlighted by both the Aiteo E&P and NNPC Limited Leadership at the Argus Conference in London.
The NNPCL spokesperson 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 specification for major buyers in Europe.
Soneye said already two cargoes laden with an average of 950,000 barrels each of the Nembe Crude Oil grade have since been exported by the NNPC/Aiteo JV to France and the Netherlands.
With the new crude blend’s attractive characteristics of API 29 and low sulphur content, Soneye said the Nembe Crude Oil grade has prospects to command 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 Billion cubic feet of export gas monthly,” Soneye said.
“This remarkable 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.
“The terminal was conceived as a Floating Storage and Offloading Vessel (FSO) with a storage capacity of two million barrels of crude oil and additional ability to offload crude oil to any export tanker from AFRAMAX to Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC),” he said.
With a loading capacity of about 25,000 barrels per hour, the NNPCL spokesperson said the vessel would be exporting over 3.6 million barrels of crude oil monthly at full scale of operation.
Currently, he said the JVs 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, has now been debottlenecked through a collaborative and creative approach that led to the development of the Alternative Crude Oil Evacuation Solution.
The Argus European Crude Conference 2023 in London is a gathering of energy majors, refiners, national oil companies (NOCs), traders, financial institutions, and other representatives from across the global oil markets.
The event also provides an important opportunity for business leaders around the world to connect, discuss, share and learn from one another about the challenges and opportunities in their operations.
