FG to split NNPC into 30 ‘profitable’ companies

Ibe Kachikwu, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says the company is to be unbundled into 30 profit-making companies.

Kachikwu, who also doubles as the state minister for petroleum resources, said each of the companies would have its separate managing director in the weeks ahead.

He made this disclosure at the 25th Oloibiri lecture series and energy forum in Abuja, and said the shake up is part of the ongoing transformation of the national oil company.

In the lecture, themed ‘Technological Advances in Hydrocarbon Exploration and Exploitation: Solutions to Global Oil Price Stability’, the minister said NNPC had been moved from a loss position of N160 billion to some N3 billion by January 2016.

“For the first time, we are unbundling the subset of the NNPC to 30 independent companies with their own managing directors,” he said.

“Titles like group executive directors are going to disappear and in their place you are going to have CEO and they are going to take responsibilities for their titles.

“At the end of the day, the CEO of an upstream company must deliver an upstream result.”

He also revealed that some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are scheduled to meet with Russia on March 20, 2016 to fine tune strategies for stabilizing oil prices.

The minister said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is focusing on developing the nation’s gas resources in order to boost revenue as part of the diversification policy of the government.

Kachikwu applauded the national assembly on their efforts on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which he said would go a long way to promote efficiency in the governance structure of the industry.

He said for the Nigerian oil and gas industry to make remarkable progress, all the stakeholders in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors need to be on the same page on cost control, contracting circle, technology and environmental issues.

He urged stakeholders to adopt integrated approach towards resolving some of the challenges of the industry in Nigeria.