Nigeria’s state oil firm, NNPC Limited, has issued new export tenders to market a cargo of its newest crude grade, Cawthorne, alongside a cargo of flagship Bonny Light for September loading.
The commercial offering was revealed according to tender documents, marking NNPC Trading Limited’s continued trial marketing push to establish firm price discovery benchmarks for the newly introduced light grade.
Cawthorne is a light, sweet crude stream boasting an API gravity of 36.4, giving it a refining profile remarkably similar to Bonny Light with high yields of valuable gasoline and middle distillates.
The grade is produced from Oil Mining Lease 18 and adjacent Eastern Niger Delta fields, stored and evacuated via the offshore Cawthorne Floating Storage and Offloading vessel, which holds 2.2 million barrels capacity.
The rollout follows recent additions like Utapate, Nembe, and Obodo, reflecting Nigeria’s strategic drive to expand its crude export portfolio, diversify global market offerings, and raise national output toward 1.7 million bpd.
These operational efforts aim to consolidate national production recovery following years of severe output curtailments triggered by widespread crude theft, pipeline vandalism, and chronic field underinvestment across the Niger Delta region.
