INDONESIA, a South East Asia emerging economy, has indicated interest to purchase more crude oil from Nigeria.

Harry Purwanto, Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, who stated this in Abuja when he paid a courtesy visit to Maikanti Baru, Group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said that his country’s President Joko Widodo, had instructed Indonesia National Oil Company, Pertamina, to direct its attention to Nigeria in its quest to meet that country’s surging energy needs.

The call by the ambassador signifies the prospects of soaring Nigeria’s market share in Asian emerging economies which include China and India, having lost grounds in crude oil sales in the United State due to advances in shale oil exploration in recent years. Although Indonesia produces 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day, its supplements with 1.4million barrels per day consumption with supplies from Nigeria, 18 percent and Saudi Arabia, 28 percent.

Speaking during the ambassador’s visit, Baru, who welcomed the development, said the NNPC was interested in working with Indonesia on its initiative to replace firewood and kerosene with Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, as primary domestic fuel for cooking.

Baru said the corporation was aware of the huge success of the kerosene substitution programme in Indonesia and would like a collaboration to help Nigeria achieve a similar feat.

The GMD said the NNPC would also like to partner with Indonesia in the area of bio-fuels production to diversify the nation’s energy mix and meet its energy needs.

He challenged Indonesia to consider participating in the forthcoming bid round in order to realise its aspiration of maintaining a presence in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.

The Indonesia ambassador disclosed that his country looked forward to lifting crude oil directly from Nigeria, rather than through a third-party as is currently the case.

He extended an invitation to the corporation to grace the Indonesia-Nigeria Business Forum holding in Lagos, adding that a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, on possible areas of co-operation between the two countries was in the works.

—  May 31, 2017 @ 17:20 GMT