Two of Nigeria’s newest crude export streams have already made a measurable dent in the country’s production ledger, with the Utapate and Cawthorne blends together delivering approximately 12.16 million barrels between January and May 2026 — a contribution that is reshaping the composition of Nigeria’s crude basket and adding a fresh strand of revenue to a sector long dominated by its legacy grades.
Analysis of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) monthly crude and condensate production data reveals the trajectory of both streams with granular clarity. Utapate, the older of the two, contributed 8.75 million barrels across the five-month period. Its daily production climbed from 55,190 barrels in January to a high of 59,290 barrels in April before settling at 59,170 barrels in May — a consistent upward grind that has yet to reach, but is visibly tracking toward, its stated potential.
Cawthorne, the newer arrival, has grown at a sharper angle. From a standing start of 12,340 barrels per day in January — still in early ramp-up — it surged to 16,450 barrels in February, 23,970 in March and 30,970 in April before easing marginally to 28,940 barrels per day in May. In monthly volume terms, that translates from 382,540 barrels in January to 929,100 barrels in April — a near-tripling in four months. The grade’s first export cargo, approximately 950,000 barrels, was lifted aboard the MT Eburones vessel and shipped to the Netherlands, with NNPC confirming the commencement of Cawthorne exports as a strategic milestone in expanding the country’s portfolio of globally competitive crude streams.
Cawthorne carries an API gravity of 36.4, placing it firmly in the light, sweet category and making it directly comparable to Bonny Light — Nigeria’s most internationally recognised and consistently sought-after grade. It is exported through a floating storage and offloading vessel strategically positioned offshore Bonny, Rivers State, on OML 18, with NNPC describing the FSO as enhancing crude evacuation reliability and operational efficiency.
Utapate, for its part, is produced from OML 13 in Akwa Ibom State by NNPC Exploration and Production Limited in partnership with Natural Oilfield Services Limited, a subsidiary of Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited. The grade carries a sulphur content of just 0.0655 percent, placing it in the low-sulphur category, and has been specifically designed with environmental credentials in mind — a zero-flare production process that reduces its carbon footprint relative to older Nigerian grades. Its reserves base on OML 13 is estimated at 330 million barrels of crude, 45 million barrels of condensate and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Against that backdrop, however, sits a production gap that remains stubbornly wide. Utapate’s 80,000-barrel-per-day target — announced at the grade’s July 2024 launch — has not been met. The shortfall ran from 24,810 barrels per day in January to 20,710 barrels per day in April before widening slightly to 20,830 barrels in May. Nicholas Foucart, Managing Director of NNPC E&P Limited, had set out a sequenced ramp-up plan at the launch: 50,000 bpd by January 2025, 60,000 to 65,000 bpd by June 2025, and 80,000 bpd by end-2025. None of those milestones have been reached on schedule, though the underlying trajectory — slow but continuous growth — suggests the target remains live rather than abandoned.
The broader significance of both grades extends beyond their individual production figures. Nigeria has historically relied on a relatively narrow basket of legacy export grades, and the addition of genuinely new streams — with distinct quality profiles, new export infrastructure and direct market linkages — diversifies the country’s crude offer at a moment when refiners globally are increasingly scrutinising the carbon intensity and quality consistency of the barrels they buy. Utapate and Cawthorne represent Nigeria’s most tangible recent answer to that demand.
Source: punchng.com