Abuja says India to purchase more crude from Nigeria

ABUJA (Reuters) - India plans to buy more crude oil from Nigeria, Nigeria's presidency on Tuesday quoted India's vice president as saying during a visit to Abuja.

"His country, which is the leading buyer of Nigeria's crude oil, will increase its purchase of the commodity in addition to natural gas," India's Vice President Hamid Ansari told Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, according to the presidency.

Separately, the upper house, the Senate, rejected a call by its president to sell oil assets to help plug a budget deficit and boost the country's foreign reserves hammered by a fall in oil revenues.

Last week, Senate President Bukola Saraki said Nigeria should sell stakes in oil and gas joint ventures with oil majors and other state assets to raise funds in hard currency and help fund the 2016 budget.

"The Senate should reject the sale of our national assets," said a motion filed by one senator, which was accepted by the upper house.

The Senate also urged the government to launch a stimulus to drag the country out of recession.

Nigeria's 2016 budget was the largest in the nation's history, but an oil price drop and militant attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta have left the government scrambling for funds.

(Reporting by Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Andrew Roche and David Gregorio)