(Adds details, background)
ABUJA, July 23 (Reuters) - Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC
plans to renew its contract for crude sales with Indonesia which
expired last year, part of moves to boost exports, it said on
Tuesday.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it
was interested in working with Indonesia's national oil company
Pertamina to improve its volume of crude exports, NNPC's new
group managing director Mele Kyari told Indonesia's ambassador.
The corporation said in a statement that the partnership
with Pertamina could open up opportunities for Nigeria's crude
oil in the face of unpredictable global markets.
It said Indonesia imported crude oil worth $2.5 billion from
Nigeria last year, the statement said, adding that the contract
ended in December.
President Muhammadu Buhari in June appointed Kyari, a
geologist, to head NNPC. Kyari is also Nigeria's representative
at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest crude producer and the oil
industry is the mainstay of the continent's biggest economy.
Crude sales provide around 90 percent of Nigeria's foreign
exchange - and a slump in oil prices in 2014 pushed the economy
into a recession in 2016.