TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne announced that the company has signed its first supply agreement with Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery.
The announcement was made during a meeting with Aliko Dangote, although specific details of the agreement were not disclosed.
“We met this morning; we made the first deal between both of us,” Pouyanne said during a panel at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.
“The two CEOs met with our head of trading, and we found a way to convince them to make a deal,” he added.
Dangote has been working to secure crude supplies for his 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery, which is the largest in Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity.
In May, the company issued a tender for two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude per month for a year starting in July, as per a tender document seen by Reuters.
The Dangote Refinery, which began production in January, cost $20 billion to construct. Dangote aims to reduce Nigeria’s dependency on fuel and other refined product imports, despite the country being Africa’s largest oil producer.
Dangote stated that the refinery has sufficient gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel to supply the African continent and export to Brazil.
“We started producing jet fuel; we are producing diesel; and by next month, we’ll be producing gasoline. This will enable us to utilize most African crudes,” Dangote explained during the panel.
He added that the refinery’s capacity exceeds Nigeria’s needs and will also supply West, Central, and Southern Africa.
