Goli Innocent 
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) on Tuesday introduced a new low-sulfur crude oil grade dubbed Nembe, which it intends to sell mostly on the European market.
The Executive Director of crude and condensate at NNPC Trading, Maryamu Idris told the Argus European Crude Conference in London that the Nembe crude grade is comparable to other highly popular blends of Africa’s largest oil producer, such as Forcados, Egina, and Bonga.
According to Idris, Nembe might face competition on the European market from crudes produced in Brazil and Azerbaijan.
Nigeria, an OPEC member, has already exported loads of the upgraded grade.
On the fringes of the conference, a source with the Nigerian oil company told Reuters that NNPC sold two cargoes totaling 950,000 barrels each to France and the Netherlands in October.
Nigeria is now producing the new Nembe grade at a rate of about 50,000 barrels per day (bpd).
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As per the media sources, there are plans to increase Nembe production to 80,000 bpd by the first quarter of 2024 and to 150,000 bpd by early 2025.
Nigeria has often fallen short of its quota under the terms of the OPEC+ agreement.
Nigeria is the largest crude oil producer among the OPEC+ due to pipeline damage, oil theft, and a lack of capacity investment.
Nigeria is currently producing about 1 million bpd less oil than it can.The administration has listed instability, a lack of investments, and a lack of financial sources as the main causes of the current state of affairs.
The Permanent Secretary of Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Gabriel Tanimu Aduda, told Energy Intelligence in July that the country wants to achieve a higher quota in the OPEC+ agreement by increasing its oil output to up to 1.7 million barrels per day by November 2023.
Nigeria had an output cap of 1.38 million bpd at the OPEC+ meeting in early June, down from its earlier quota of 1.742 million bpd because of over 400,000 bpd of underproduction.
