Dangote Refinery has purchased its first cargo of Equatorial Guinea’s medium sweet Ceiba crude, amid reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) failed to deliver on its promise to supply adequate crude to the refinery.

According to sources, Dangote bought the 950,000 barrels of cargo over April 12-13 from BP in the past week. The price of the cargo is being kept under wraps. This comes after Dangote Refinery bought its first cargo of Algeria’s light sweet Saharan Blend crude from trading firm Glencore last month.

Market sources told Argus that Dangote seems to have sourced competitively priced crude from Equatorial Guinea at a time when domestic grades are facing sluggish demand from Nigeria’s core European market. This comes amid ample supply of cheaper Kazakh-origin light sour CPC Blend, United States WTI, and Mediterranean sweet crudes.

The NNPC has said it is currently in negotiations with Dangote Refinery about extending their naira-for-crude arrangement. “Any changes to the terms of the programme may pressure Dangote to increase the amount of foreign crude in its slate,” the report said.

Refinery sources told Argus in January that Dangote will source at least 50 per cent of its crude needs on the import market and is building eight storage tanks to facilitate this. The founder of the refinery, Aliko Dangote, said last month that the refinery is planning to reach its full capacity in March.

However, crude shortage remains a challenge and this could prevent the facility from achieving its ramp-up plans. NNPC spokesperson Olufemi Soneye disclosed some details of the naira-for-crude deal in a recent statement.

“Under this arrangement, NNPC has made over 48 million barrels of crude oil available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024. In aggregate, NNPC has made over 84 million barrels of crude oil available to the refinery since its commencement of operations in 2023,” he said.

Experts said that to meet its 650,000 bpd production target, the refinery must look elsewhere for feedstock, as the NNPC supplies an average 300,000 barrels of crude per day to Dangote Refinery.