Low-sulfur straight-run fuel oil (LSSR) from the Port Harcourt Refinery has reportedly been sold for the first time by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to Gulf Transport & Trading Limited (GTT), situated in Dubai.
In the upcoming days, the refinery will begin exporting petroleum products when the 15,000 metric tons of cargo—roughly 13.6 million liters—are loaded into the Wonder Star MR1 vessel.
The discovery may eventually affect Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) benchmarks and change market dynamics for Atlantic Basin exporters supplying Nigeria and other countries, despite the fact that the volume entering the global market from NNPCL is now small.
“The sulfur content of the export by NNPC is at 0.26 percent per wt and a 0.918 g/ml density at 15°C,” the Guardian reports.
According to the report, the cargo was sold on a Free on Board (FOB) basis at a discount of $8.50/t to the NWE 0.5 percent benchmark.
As Nigeria’s falling clean product (CPP) imports are already declining, it was further stated that the “progress would help displace imports from traditional suppliers in Africa and Europe, pulling imports into the larger West Africa region lower as well.”
Olufemi Soneye, the NNPC spokesperson, has not yet verified the sales at the time this article was filed.