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Nigeria to split state-run oil firm: minister

Xinhua, March 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

A major plan to split Nigeria's state-run oil firm will be announced in the next one week, Minister for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has said.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would be divided into four or five main operational zones comprising 30 companies to be headed by a director each, Kachikwu told reporters on Thursday in the capital, Abuja.

"For the national oil company, a lot of work is going on... But within the next one week, we are going to be announcing some really major overhaul of the system; one that hasn't been done in over 20 years," he said.

The minister said the creation of the 30 companies would make the sector more competitive, adding that their key issues include "getting the upstream working again".

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer, but the industry has been hit by the declining international oil price. Endit