The new grade is Umm Lulu, which has an API gravity of 38.7 degrees and contains 0.7 percent sulphur, they said.
"It's heavier than Murban and Das," one of the sources said, referring to ADNOC's traditional light grades. ADNOC could initially start exporting one to two cargoes a month, the source said.
Umm Lulu is a blend produced from its Umm Lulu and SARB fields, operated by ADNOC Offshore. The fields will make a material contribution to the company's production capacity target of 3.5 million barrels by end of 2018, a company spokesman said.
Initial production capacity of the two fields is 50,000 barrels per day, which will ramp up to 129,000 barrels per day by the end of the 2018 and 215,000 barrels per day by 2023, he said.