Indonesia has expressed the desire to buy more crude oil from Nigeria
The request was made by the Head of Economic Affairs of the Indonesian Embassy, Dwiyatna Widinugraha, who led a delegation from the country on a courtesy call on the group managing director of the NNPC, Dr Baru Maikanti, in Abuja.
Speaking on the purpose of their visit, Widinugraha commended NNPC for its support in crude oil supply which has helped Indonesia to achieve energy sufficiency, adding that the country needed further assistance in the form of increased crude oil allocation.
He stated that Indonesia, with a population of more than 250mn people, needed about 1.6 mmbbl of crude oil daily to meet its burgeoning energy needs as an emerging economy and would love to have a government-to-government arrangement with Nigeria in that regard.
Anizar Burlian, vice-president of Pertamina, the Indonesian National Oil Company, said that they were in Abuja to thank Nigeria for helping them meet their local oil demand and to further explore better arrangements of buying the country’s very high-grade crude oil.
He said they were also interested in investment opportunities in the Nigerian upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the Nigerian oil industry.
Responding on behalf of the corporation, Mele Kyari, group general manager for crude oil marketing division (COMD) at NNPC, said that NNPC would continue to assist Indonesia in the area of crude oil supply, adding that the request for a government-to-government crude supply arrangement should be routed through the President of Nigeria.
