Exports 1.9m barrels to France, Netherlands
From Uche Usim, Abuja
The NNPC/Aiteo Joint Venture (JV) has launched a new crude oil grade called ‘Nembe crude oil blend’ into the international oil market.
The feat is being applauded in the petroleum sector as a major step towards expanding Nigeria’s crude production frontiers and deepening global competitiveness.
Already, two cargoes (vessels), each laden with 950,000 barrels of the new product have docked in France and the Netherlands where it was sold.
The announcement of the new product, 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.
OML 29, an asset located onshore Nigeria, is operated by Aiteo Eastern Exploration & Production Limited, an indigenous hydrocarbon producer, following a historic acquisition from Shell in 2014.
Olufemi Soneye, the Spokesman of NNPC Limited explained that the Nembe Crude was previously blended with the popular Bonny Light grade and exported via the Bonny Oil & Gas Terminal.
“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.
“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 two cargoes at 950,000 barrels each per month and 1.2 Bcf of export gas monthly,” Soneye stated in a statement.
He added that the remarkable achievement signals the commencement of activities at Nigeria’s newest crude oil terminal, the Nembe Crude Oil Export Terminal (NCOET), which 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.
“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, has now been debottlenecked through a collaborative and creative approach that led to the innovation of the Alternative Crude Oil Evacuation Solution”, the NNPC Spokesman noted.
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. The event also provides a critical opportunity for business leaders to connect and cross-pollinate.