The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is set to begin exporting a new light, sweet crude grade called Cawthorne from March, adding fresh momentum to the country’s ongoing production recovery.
The launch forms part of Nigeria’s broader push to lift output — long constrained by unrest and crude theft — and follows the introduction of two other new grades, Obodo in 2025 and Utapate in 2024. The NNPC issued a tender for the new grade covering March 24–25, according to industry sources.
Cawthorne crude has an API gravity of 36.4, placing it in the same quality bracket as Nigeria’s flagship Bonny Light, prized for its high yields of gasoline and diesel. The grade is expected to be exported through the Floating Storage and Offloading vessel Cawthorne, which has a capacity of 2.2 million barrels and is designed to boost crude transportation and output from Oil Mining Lease 18 and surrounding Eastern Niger Delta assets.
Commodity analysts at Kpler said the new grade could lift Nigeria’s total crude and condensate supply from approximately 1.65 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 1.7 million bpd for the remainder of the year. Nigeria’s current OPEC+ output quota stands at 1.5 million bpd, and the country pumped 1.48 million bpd in January, according to OPEC data. Nigeria is also among the member states seeking higher production targets within the producer group.
Source: orientalnewsng.com