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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has exported its first cargo of 950,000 Utapate barrels of crude to Spain.
Utapate crude oil is produced from the Utapate field in OML 13 in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. It is similar to the Nembe crude oil grade.
It has a low sulphur content of 0.0655% and a low carbon footprint due to flare gas elimination, fitting perfectly into the required specifications of major buyers in Europe, NAN reports.
The oil was introduced in July by the NNPC Ltd. and its partner, the Sterling Oil Exploration & Energy Production Company, SEEPCO Ltd.
This followed the lifting of first cargo of 950,000 barrels which headed for Spain.
Speaking at the Argus European Crude Conference, in London on Wednesday, Nicholas Foucart, the Managing Director, NNPC E & P Limited (NEPL) disclosed the shipping of the locally produced crude oil to the international market.
A statement issued by Olufemi Soneye, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd. on Wednesday in Abuja, equally described this development as a drastic step to boost the revenue generation of Nigeria.
The statement reads: “Since we started producing the Utapate Field in May 2024, we have rapidly ramped up production to 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) with minimum downtime.
“So far, we have exported five cargoes, largely to Spain and the East Coast of the U.S.A.
“Two more additional cargoes have been secured for November and December 2024, representing a significant boost to Nigeria’s crude oil export to the global market.”
The statement revealed further that many buyers on the international scene have continued to give positive feedback on the usage of the Utapate crude oil blend.
It said the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 13, operated by NEPL and Natural Oilfield Services Ltd. (NOSL), a subsidiary of SEEPCO Ltd., boasted reserves of 330 million barrels of crude, 45 million barrels of condensate and 3.5 tcf of gas.
It continued: “We have a number of ongoing projects to increase our production from the current 40,000bopd to 50,000bopd by Jan. 2025 and 60,000bopd to 65,000bopd by June 2025.
“Essentially, we are targeting opportunities to increase production to 80,000bopd by the end of 2025,” it added.
The Managing Director, NNPC Trading Ltd. (NTL), Mr Lawal Sade compared the pricing structure of the Utapate crude oil blend with that of Amenam crude.
He said it is a light sweet crude which is highly sought after by refiners across the world due to its low sulphur content, efficient yield of high-value products, API gravity and other similarities.
He said in bringing the new crude oil blend to the global market, NNPC Ltd. wanted to optimise value for both its producers and counterparties across the globe.
He said to ensure predictability and sustainability of supply, NNPC’s trading intended to run a term contract on the Utapate crude oil blend cargoes, principally targeting off-takers from the European and U.S East Coast refineries.
Produced from the Utapate field in OML 13 in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, the Utapate crude oil blend was similar to the Nembe crude oil grade.
It has a low sulphur content of 0.0655 per cent and a low carbon footprint due to gas flaring elimination, fitting perfectly into the required specifications of major buyers in Europe.
The Utapate field development plan, executed between 2013 to 2019 and approved in October, included converting wells and facilities from swamp/marine to land-based operations.
The plan involved a multi-rig drilling campaign for 40 wells and the development of infrastructure such as production facilities, storage tanks, a subsea pipeline and an offshore loading platform to facilitate crude oil evacuation and loading.
The entry of the Utapate crude oil blend into the market is coming barely a year after the NNPC Ltd announced the inauguration of Nembe crude oil, produced by the NNPC/Aiteo operated OML 29 Joint Venture.
