KEY POINTS

• NNPC Trading shipped more than 1.03 million metric tons of crude, around 6.8 million barrels, to the Dangote refinery in April through eight cargoes.
• Five of the cargoes have fully discharged and three are pending, with streams pulled from Anyala, Bonga, Odudu, Forcados, Qua Iboe and Utapate.
• The flow stays below the refinery’s stated requirement of 19 cargoes a month, even after Aliko Dangote told Bloomberg that NNPC doubled supply to 10 cargoes in March.

Aliko Dangote’s Lekki refinery has just landed its biggest April crude lift from the state oil company. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s trading arm delivered more than 1.03 million metric tons of crude, about 6.8 million barrels, to the Dangote Oil and Gas Company Limited within the month.

Tanker movement records that The PUNCH reviewed on Tuesday show the supply moved through eight cargoes that NNPC Trading handled. The shipments came from key Nigerian streams including Anyala, Bonga, Odudu, Forcados, Qua Iboe and Utapate, and offloaded through the refinery’s two Single Point Mooring systems, SPM-C1 and SPM-C2.

Eight cargoes hit the Lekki terminals

Sonangol Kalandula opened the run on April 5, dropping 123,000 metric tons of Anyala crude before sailing on April 9. Advantage Spring followed with 128,190 tons of Bonga, arriving April 11 and finishing discharge by April 13.

Three more cargoes completed their offloads through the month: Barbarosa with 125,000 tons of Odudu, Sonangol Njinga Mban with 129,089 tons of Bonga and Nordic Tellus with 139,066 tons of Forcados, which wrapped up on April 17.

Three further shipments are still in the queue: Advantage Sun with 142,327 tons of Bonga, Advantage Spring with 120,189 tons of Utapate and Sonangol Kalandula due back with 126,471 tons of Qua Iboe. Together, the eight NNPC Trading cargoes total 1,033,332 metric tons of crude.

Refinery still pushes for more

Even at that pace, the refinery is running below its stated monthly requirement of 19 cargoes. The 650,000-barrel-per-day Lekki plant has long pressed for more local feedstock, and Nigeria itself imported 55.39 million barrels in January and February, a gap the refinery’s complaints have repeatedly flagged.

International and domestic suppliers also kept the plant fed. Yasa Hercules brought 273,287 tons of US crude from Corpus Christi, Front Orkla added 264,889 tons from Ingleside and Navig8 Passion landed 496,330 tons from Cameroon. Domestic streams added Harmonic with nearly 993,240 barrels from Ugo Ocha and Aura M with 1 million barrels from Escravos.

Refined products joined the mix. Vitol’s Seaways Lonsdale delivered 37,400 tons of blendstock gasoline from Immingham, while Augenstern, Emma Grace and LVM Aaron carried PMS shipments from Lavera, Mongstad and Lome.

The picture lines up with Aliko Dangote’s recent Bloomberg comments. Africa’s richest man, who chairs the Dangote Group, told the wire that NNPC doubled supply to 10 cargoes in March, six of which the refinery paid for in naira and four in dollars. April’s eight-cargo run signals NNPC is keeping pace, though Dangote keeps pushing for the full monthly haul.