Nigeria will launch exports of a new crude grade in March as OPEC’s biggest African oil producer looks to boost output and exports and seek a higher baseline in the OPEC+ agreements.
The national oil company of Nigeria will start shipping the Cawthorne grade, a type of sweet crude similar to the country’s flagship Bonny Light crude, a spokesperson for NNPC told Reuters on Tuesday.
The first loading of the new crude variety is set to take place in the third week of March, a source with knowledge of the plans told the publication.
Cawthorne will be exported from the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) of the same name and could raise Nigerian crude and condensate supply to 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for the remainder of 2026, up from about 1.65 million bpd now, according to a Kpler note cited by Reuters.
In each of the past two years, Nigeria launched a new crude grade on the global market—Obodo in 2025 and Utapate in 2024.
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.
The African country booked average daily crude oil production of around 1.5 million barrels for 2025, which was 500,000 bpd lower than the government’s target for the sector.
Going forward, Nigeria’s NNPC plans to “Intensify collaboration with our partners through year-end and into 2026 to ensure improved production performance, maximise infrastructure uptime, and maintain high facility maintenance standards across all our assets.”
NNPC is set to increase oil production to 2 million bpd over the next two years, its executive vice president for upstream, Udy Ntia, said in November 2025.
By 2030, NNPC will be pumping 3 million barrels daily, according to the official.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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