Royal Dutch Shell has won a tender to sell 1 million barrels of Nigeria's Bonny Light crude to a group of refining companies in Argentina.

The tender was awarded to the company last week, traders said.

Companies interested in purchasing the crude oil cargo include Oil Combustibles, Axion Energy, Petrobras Argentina and Shell itself.

The crude oil cargo is expected to be delivered from August 1-10 and will be processed at several domestic refineries in the country. However, further details such as the prices agreed for the cargo was not disclosed.

This year, Argentina has imported two 1-million-barrel cargoes of African crudes and is importing for the third time, but the new government of the country is making efforts to lower the purchases by acquiring a bigger supply of domestic oil to domestic refineries, Reuters reports.

The new government of President Mauricio Macri is in negotiation with oil producers and refiners to ensure that Argentina's overall output of light crude is processed at domestic plants, thereby reducing the demand for imported oil.

Argentina has excess heavy crude that is frequently exported, but it does not produce enough light grades. Due to these quality issues refining companies intends to import at least 3 million barrels of crude this year, mostly from Africa.

Anita Fatunji