The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) announced on Tuesday that it had launched a new crude oil grade called ‘Nembe’ and had dispatched its maiden cargo of two 950,000 barrels in October. The first cargoes of the new grade were sold to France and the Netherlands.
Nembe shares characteristics with other distillate-rich grades such as Forcados, Bonga, and Egina. The low-sulfur grade fetches a premium above the global Brent benchmark and is a good grade for European refiners to compete with Brazilian and Azeri crude grades, she noted. Nembe production is now at 50,000 barrels per day, but the NNPCL stated that it hopes to increase to 80,000 barrels per day by the first quarter of next year and 150,000 barrels per day by the beginning of 2025.
The news follows the recovery of crude oil production, which increased from 900,000 barrels per day in September to 1.3 million barrels per day last month. Austin Avuru, Chairman of AA Holdings, stated on Monday at the Pre-Conference workshop of the 41st 2023 conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists in Lagos that the Federal Government would require a total of about $21 billion in annual investments to achieve 3 million barrels per day crude oil production.
Avuru’s presentation, titled ‘Unlocking Nigeria’s Remaining Energy Potential to Fuel Economic Growth and Diversification: Opportunities and Challenges,’ opined that the investment would be needed to fund oil exploration in order to accomplish 3 million barrels by 2027.
