The 650,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery has bought its first cargo of Equatorial Guinea’s medium sweet, Ceiba crude.

This is coming amid reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has supplied fresh cargoes of crude to the Dangote refinery.

According to Argus Media, sources with knowledge of the matter said Dangote bought the 950,000 barrel cargo loading over April 12-13 from BP in the past week. The price levels of the deal were kept under wraps.

Argus reports that most Ceiba exports typically go to China. Around 18,000 barrels per day were discharged there last year, while three shipments went to Spain and one to the Netherlands, according to Vortexa data.

It was learnt that two cargoes loading in February and March this year are signalling Zhanjiang in China, according to tracking data.

Traders had reportedly noted that buying a Ceiba cargo is part of Dangote’s efforts to diversify its crude sources.

Last month the refinery bought its first cargo of Algeria’s light sweet Saharan Blend crude from trading firm Glencore, which is due to be delivered between March 15 and 20.

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 amid ample supply of cheaper Kazakh-origin light sour CPC Blend, United States WTI, and Mediterranean sweet crudes.

Several European refineries are due to undergo maintenance in April, which is also weighing on demand.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has said it is currently in negotiations with the Dangote refinery about extending the naira-for-crude arrangement, which involves crude prices being set in dollars and Dangote paying the naira equivalent.

“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.

In a statement recently, the NNPC spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, disclosed that 48 million barrels of crude oil have been made available to the Dangote refinery since October 2024, when the naira-for-crude deal started. He added that 84 million barrels had been made available since the refinery commenced operations in 2023.

“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,” Soneye noted.

This indicates that the NNPC is supplying an average of 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the Dangote refinery.

To hit its 650,000 target, experts said the refinery must look elsewhere for feedstock.