Firms buying the cargo include Oil Combustibles, Axion Energy, Petrobras Argentina and Shell. The crude must be delivered on August 1-10 and it will be processed at several domestic refineries.

It was not immediately possible to know the price agreed for the cargo. Shell has a policy not to comment on such commercial issues.

Argentina has imported two 1-million-barrel cargoes of African crudes so far this year, but the new government of Mauricio Macri is trying to reduce purchases by securing a larger supply of domestic oil to domestic refineries.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Andrew Hay)