|
Listen to article
|
Nigeria’s state oil firm NNPC will begin exporting a new light, sweet crude grade called Cawthorne from March, an NNPC spokesperson confirmed, adding to a recent recovery in output from Africa’s top exporter. The launch marks the third consecutive annual introduction of a new crude stream by the country, following Utapate in 2024 and Obodo in 2025, and comes as Nigeria lobbies the OPEC+ alliance for a higher production quota ahead of a ministerial review later this year.
Cawthorne crude has an API gravity of 36.4, making it similar in quality to Nigeria’s Bonny Light, valued for its high yields of gasoline and diesel. It is classified as light and sweet, the grade configuration most sought by European and Asian refiners running configurations optimised for clean fuel output, and positions Nigeria to target the same market segments as its flagship stream while offering buyers a new loading window and a differentiated price reference.
NNPC issued a tender last week for cargoes scheduled to load between March 24 and 25.
The crude is expected to be exported via the Floating Storage and Offloading vessel Cawthorne, which has a storage capacity of 2.2 million barrels and is designed to improve crude evacuation and production from Oil Mining Lease 18 and surrounding assets in the Eastern Niger Delta. The use of a dedicated FSO vessel removes a significant logistical constraint that has historically limited output from OML 18, a block that has seen production plateau due to inadequate evacuation infrastructure, and allows liftings to proceed independently of onshore pipeline availability.
Kpler estimates that the new stream could raise Nigeria’s combined crude and condensate output from around 1.65 million barrels per day to approximately 1.7 million barrels per day for the remainder of the year. That trajectory, if sustained, would place Nigeria well above its current OPEC+ quota of 1.5 million barrels per day. Nigeria, already pumping close to its OPEC quota, is among the countries seeking a higher target within the producer group.
OPEC data showed the country produced approximately 1.48 million barrels per day in January, its closest approach to quota compliance in several years, following a sustained period of chronic underperformance that began with the acceleration of crude theft in the Niger Delta from 2020 onward.
The contrast between those two figures, current production approaching 1.7 million barrels per day and an OPEC+ quota set at 1.5 million, places Nigeria in the unusual position of having outrun the ceiling its alliance membership imposes. Nigeria has failed to pump to its OPEC+ quota in recent years and missed its own oil production targets last year, but it plans an output boost through 2030. NNPC’s executive vice president for upstream, Udy Ntia, said in November 2025 that the company aimed to reach 2 million barrels per day within two years and 3 million by 2030, targets that would require not only operational stability but a substantial renegotiation of its OPEC+ allowance.
Read Also: PENGASSAN Says No To Tinubu’s Executive Order On NNPCL
The recovery that has enabled the current production rebound is partly security-driven. Nigeria has intensified surveillance along major oil export pipelines and trunk lines, deployed aerial monitoring in high-theft corridors of the Niger Delta, and renegotiated community engagement frameworks with host communities in Rivers, Bayelsa, and Delta states. The results have been measurable: estimated losses from crude theft, which at their peak were reducing effective output by 200,000 barrels per day or more, have fallen significantly over the past 18 months, according to NNPC’s own assessments and third-party tracking.
The introduction of Cawthorne could also attract buyers seeking specific light, sweet crude qualities, boosting foreign exchange earnings, which would help strengthen government revenue and ease borrowing needs.
Nigeria’s fiscal position remains heavily dependent on oil revenues, which account for the majority of government receipts and are the primary source of foreign exchange. The naira’s recent partial stabilisation, after its collapse through 2023 and 2024, has been supported in part by improved oil earnings, and sustained production growth would reinforce that dynamic.
In November 2024, NNPC officially launched the Utapate crude oil blend in the international market, describing it as a milestone for Nigeria’s export profile. Earlier in July 2024, NNPC and its partner Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company lifted the first 950,000-barrel cargo of Utapate crude, shipped to Spain. The Obodo grade, launched in 2025, has established a buyer base among Mediterranean and South Asian refiners. Cawthorne’s Bonny Light-equivalent specifications will give it immediate market recognition, reducing the price discovery period that new grades typically require before trading at established differentials to benchmark.
Read Also: NNPCL Reports Profit Increases By 12% To ₦502bn
The first loading window of March 24 to 25 gives the market approximately four weeks to assess the grade’s consistency, quality specifications, and pricing before NNPC issues subsequent cargo tenders. Whether the FSO’s 2.2 million barrel capacity can be lifted and replaced with sufficient frequency to sustain the output addition through the remainder of the year depends on operational stability at OML 18, an asset whose history includes periodic force majeure declarations linked to community disputes and pipeline integrity issues.
No official comment had been issued by OPEC on Nigeria’s quota position in light of the new grade’s launch.
