Argentina imports Nigeria’s crude

Nigeria has expanded its crude export to Argentina, as one million barrels of its Bonga medium crude is expected to be discharged in Argentina this week.
According to information gathered, this will be the second crude import by firms operating in the South American country this year to secure oil supplies for their refineries.
The new government of President Mauricio Macri is in talks between oil producers and refiners to make sure Argentina’s total output of light crude is processed at domestic plants, lowering demand for imported oil.
But because of quality issues – Argentina has a surplus of heavy crude that is regularly exported, but it does not produce enough light grades, forcing refining companies to plan for import of at least 3 million barrels of crude this year, mostly from Africa.
Refineries operators in Argentina including Royal Dutch Shell arranged the purchase, the oil firm said over the weekend.
Hoping to reduce costs, Argentina in 2014 lifted restrictions on crude imports to replace finished fuel purchases. Since then, it has been buying African grades.
The country produces some 520,000 bpd of crude and it is also a regular exporter of Escalante medium grade.
In a new effort to cut invoices for imports, the government recently announced it will reduce gas oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases in the medium term, only keeping gas imports from Bolivia.
Argentina is not the first to show interest in Nigeria’s crude.
Earlier in the year, countries like China imported….. even as the United States of America axed import from Nigeria to zero percent.
However in late April, speculation arose that U.S may be having a rethink over Nigeria’s crude.