Mongolia has agreed to an oil-exploration deal with China 's largest energy producer, Mongolia 's prime minister said Friday.

Under the agreement, PetroChina Co. (PTR) will lead oil exploration in eastern Mongolia , Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Altankhuyag said Mongolia hopes to raise its exports of crude oil to China to 800,000 metric tons, or 5.86 million barrels, next year. This would represent an increase of 38% compared with 2013, he said.

Mongolia exported about 420,000 tons of crude to China in the first nine months of this year, up 43.4% from the same period a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data.

The country also wants to export 2 billion tons of coal to China by 2020 and is working with China 's largest coal producer, Shenhua Group, on a border railway project.

Mr. Altankhuyag said his country wants to build four new border trade checkpoints with China , up from the current one.

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