Commodity Online

NEW DELHI: Indian firms NTPC and Essar have decided to participate in oil and gas exploration in Nigeria.

Essar had sought crude blocks while NTPC had sought LNG from Nigeria and both had made presentations to the government sometime back.

Earlier, Nigeria has invited Indian companies to invest in its power sector.

Speaking on the sidelines of second CII Nigeria India business and investment forum, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission CEO Mustafa Bello said, If Essar and NTPC take oil or gas blocks, they would invest in power sector .

Nigeria currently produces 4,000 MW of power and aims to touch 10,000 MW in near future.

Hinduja group s Ashok Leyland which had expressed interest earlier had backed out, the commission s CEO said.

The total trade between Indian and Nigeria was estimated at 79,224.22 million dollars in 2006 07.

Nigeria