Nigeria's Dangote refinery buys first crude oil from Brazil, Equatorial Guinea

Nigeria's new Dangote refinery bought its first crude oil from Brazil and Equatorial Guinea, according to a company executive, as volatile domestic availability has added incentive to diversify its feedstock.

According to S&P Global Commodities at Sea(opens in a new tab) data, Brazil's Petrobras shipped the first cargo of Brazil's Tupi crude to the refinery on March 26, delivering 1 million barrels of the medium sweet grade.

Supplies from Equatorial Guinea are yet to be dispatched, according to the ship tracking data, but will soon add to the growing list of crude grades being processed at the plant.

"We have started sourcing globally," a refinery executive told Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights on March 28, confirming that the company now counts Brazil and Equatorial Guinea among its global oil suppliers.

The company's growing import activity has come as a surprise to some analysts, as the giant refinery has looked beyond the light sweet Nigerian crude it was designed to process.

Since it was commissioned in Jan. 2024, the Dangote refinery has relied mostly on Nigerian supply sourced from state oil company NNPC. But as operations have scaled toward a nameplate capacity of 650,000 b/d, the refiner has placed growing emphasis on developing new supply channels.

To date, the refinery has supplemented Nigerian crude oil with other light sweet grades, including WTI Midland crude from the US and Algeria's Saharan Blend, as well as heavy sweet Pazflor supply sourced from Angola.

According to CAS data, Dangote has received roughly 400,000 b/d of crude oil in 2025 to date, of which around 35% was imported internationally.

Nigerian supply question

As a private company, the Dangote Group has the freedom to run and optimize its refinery operations as it sees fit.

Its CEO, Aliko Dangote, previously shared plans to run Brazilian crude at the plant back in July 2024, and said talks were underway with Senegal and Libya over potential supply routes.

However, as the refinery's main trade partner and minority stakeholder, NNPC, has faced its own challenges, the company could have new incentives to forge alternative supply links.

Since the refinery began operating, NNPC has consistently underdelivered on supplies for Dangote.

After delivering around a third of some 300,000 b/d of discounted oil it had initially promised to the refinery, according to CAS data, the national oil company reduced its stake in the project from 20% to 7.2% in July.

In August, it agreed to begin supplying crude to Dangote in Nigeria's home currency, the naira, as part of an initiative to deflate Nigerian fuel prices, and briefly became its sole supplier.

However, according to NNPC figures, the NOC delivered roughly 280,000 b/d of crude to Dangote in naira by March 10, falling shy of the 385,000 b/d agreed under the deal.

Naira-for-crude renewal

As the six-month deal approaches its expiry at the end of March, federal government officials have insisted that a new contract will be agreed.

However, in addition to foreign exchange shortages and debt concerns, NNPC is now battling new challenges with instability and pipeline sabotage in Rivers State, clouding its production outlook.

In contrast to government rhetoric, the Dangote executive expressed skepticism over whether a new naira-for-crude deal will go ahead. "We are not even sure whether it will be renewed," he said.

Besides challenges for NNPC, he argued that the obligation for Dangote to sell its oil products in naira under the deal had become a drag on its operations.

He said that the refinery was left exposed to price fluctuations by pegging contract prices to dollar-based benchmarks and converting them into naira at the point of sale.

"It's not commercially advantageous for us," said the source. "When we buy in naira and sell in naira, the forex risk between the time of buying crude and selling the products may not be fully covered".

According to trade sources and Nigerian port authorities, NNPC has allocated seven crude oil cargoes to deliver around 245,000 b/d to the Dangote site in April, but is yet to agree payment terms.

Platts assessed Tupi FOB Brazil premium of 28 cents/b to the Latin American Dated Brent strip on March 28, below a 50 cent/b premium for Nigeria's Bonny Light grade.