Nigeria said Tuesday that it had launched a new grade of crude called Nembe, which it says is particularly suited to the European market.
One of Africa’s top producers of crude oil, OPEC member Nigeria, for many years, has struggled with declining production and disruptions to supply due to unrest and oil theft.
According to the state-owned oil firm NNPC, the first cargoes of Nembe were sold in October.
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The cargo of two 950,000 barrel shipments was sold to France and the Netherlands, an NNPC source told Reuters on the sidelines of the Argus European Crude conference in London.
Nembe is similar to Nigeria’s other distillate-rich grades such as Forcados, Bonga and Egina, Maryamu Idris, executive director of crude and condensate at NNPC Trading, told the conference.
The low-sulphur grade commands a premium to the global Brent benchmark and is a good candidate to compete with Brazilian and Azeri crude grades for European refiners, she added.
Production of Nembe is currently around 50,000 barrels per day, but the NNPC is aiming for a rise to 80,000 by the first quarter of next year and 150,000 barrels per day by the start of 2025, the source added.
A Reuters survey showed Nigeria produces roughly 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), but the country hopes to ramp up production to about 1.7 million bpd, a second NNPC source told Reuters.
