Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. will be divided into 30 companies “in the weeks ahead,” according to Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources and NNPC group managing director.
In a Mar. 3 speech in Abuja, Kachikwu said the “unbundling” is part of “the ongoing transformation of the national oil company.”
He cited efforts to shorten upstream contract cycles and review the production-sharing contract.
Most of Nigeria’s oil projects are joint ventures of NNPC with international oil companies. The country uses PSCs mainly for deepwater projects.
In his speech, Kachikwu commended the National Assembly for work on the Petroleum Industry Bill, a legal and regulatory reform effort that was introduced in 2008 and has undergone several revisions.
Late last year, the legislature was reported to be planning to split the bill into politically manageable segments.