MARKET NEWS

(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s giant Dangote refinery purchased its first shipment of US oil after a hiatus of three months as the site continues to ramp up production. 

The plant purchased about two million barrels of WTI Midland crude from Chevron Corp., according to people with knowledge of the transaction who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The cargo is due to be delivered to the refinery near Lagos next month. 

Earlier this year, Dangote was typically receiving one or two supertankers of US crude every month alongside domestic supplies. But the flows waned in the summer as the refinery switched to taking more local output, amid an agreement to take up to 400,000 barrels a day of Nigerian crude paid for in local currency. 

Dangote is taking a growing role in US and European oil markets, after gradually raising purchases of crude from Nigeria and the US. The plant’s pull on those barrels increases the competition for the oil faced by traditional buyers in Europe.  

Chevron booked the supertanker Azure Nova to load crude from the US Gulf around Dec. 5 to Dangote, according to tanker fixtures seen by Bloomberg. It wasn’t clear why the refinery had returned to purchasing US barrels. Earlier this week though, Sparta Commodities said in a note that cheaper shipping costs were the main factor in WTI Midland landing cheaply into Europe recently.

The refinery is also beginning to shake up regional fuel markets, hauling gasoline beyond Nigeria’s borders to Togo earlier this month.

--With assistance from Lucia Kassai and Alex Longley.