KIGALI, May 17 (Reuters) - French energy major,

TotalEnergies, had struck its first supply deal with

Dangote Refinery in Nigeria, Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne

said on Friday, following a meeting with Africa's richest man,

Aliko Dangote.

"We met this morning, we made the first deal between both of

us," Pouyanne told a panel at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali,

Rwanda. "The two CEOs met with our head of trading and we found

the way to convince them to make a deal," he added.

Dangote has been trying to secure crude supplies for his

650,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery, the largest in Africa

and Europe when it reaches full capacity.

In May, the company put out a tender for two million barrels

of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude every month for a

year starting in July, a tender document seen by Reuters showed.

The oil refinery, which started production in January, cost

$20 billion to build. Dangote aims to reverse Nigeria's reliance

on imports for fuel and other refined products even though the

country is Africa's biggest oil producer.

Dangote said the refinery had enough gasoline, diesel and

aviation fuel to supply the African continent and export to

Brazil.

"We started producing jet fuel, we are producing diesel, by

next month, we'll be producing gasoline. What that will do, it

will be able to take most African crudes," Dangote told the

panel.

"Our capacity is too big for Nigeria. It will be able to

supply West Africa, Central Africa and also Southern Africa," he

added.

The next phase of the refinery will start early next year,

Dangote said.

TotalEnergies is one of the major producers of crude in

Nigeria alongside Shell, Exxon and Chevron ( CVX )

.