The first export cargo of Nigeria’s newest crude grade, Anyala, is on its way to Northwest Europe, industry sources told S & P Global on Monday.
It was gathered that Aframax’s Minerva Clara loaded a 700,000 barrels stem of Anyala crude from the Abigail-Joseph floating production, storage and offloading vessel on January 10.
It was learnt that the tanker is enroute the Fos-sur-Mer terminal in France’s Mediterranean port of Marseille, according to data intelligence firm, Kpler.
Sources told S & P Global that Vitol, a trading house, had chartered the tanker, as it had a stake in First Exploration and Petroleum Development, the operator of the Anyala West oil fields, located in Niger Delta.
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A representative at Vitol wasn’t immediately available for comment on the matter.
One market source said the cargo is likely to travel from Fos-sur-Mer to the Cressier refinery in Switzerland through the SPSE pipeline.
The 68,000 b/d Cressier is operated by Varo Energy.
Varo Energy is a joint venture between Vitol, private equity fund the Carlyle Group, and private investment fund Reggeborgh.
FIRST E&P and its partner, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), announced the commencement of oil production from the Anyala West field, offshore Nigeria in November last year.
The oil field is contained in the oil mining lease (OML) 83 in the shallow waters of the Niger Delta, off the coast of Bayelsa State in the southernmost part of Nigeria.
A total of seven development wells were planned in Phase one and approved by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in the Anyala West field (OML 83), which was developed along with the nearby Madu field in (OML 85) to be jointly produced in the Abigail-Joseph FPSO.
The project’s peak production is estimated to be around 60,000 barrels of oil per day while and expected to unlock more than 300 million barrels of crude oil recoverable reserves.
FIRST E&P is the operator of OMLs 83 and 85 with a 40 per cent stake, while the remaining 60 per cent stake is held by NNPC.
