NIGERIA - NNPC Structure.

NNPC was formed in 1977 from a merger of the state-owned Nigerian National Oil Corp. and the former ministry of petroleum resources. NNPC's superstructure consists of a group managing director and six group executive directors. The latter are in charge of six directorates which oversee NNPC's subsidiaries, as follows:

The E&P Directorate. Its units include upstream departments, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (Napims) which oversees the oil producing JVs, a group which monitors the PSAs, Nigerian Petroleum Development Co. which produces oil and gas from some fields, Integrated Data Services which provides seismic and reservoir evaluation services, and Nigerian Gas Co. which supplies the local market with gas and handles the national gas pipelines.

The Processing Directorate. Its four subsidiaries are the Kaduna Refining & Petrochemicals Co., the Warri Refining & Petrochemicals Co., the Eleme Petrochemicals Co., and the Port Harcourt Refining Co.

The Engineering & Technical Directorate. Its subsidiary is Nigerian Engineering & Technical Co., which was once a JV with Bechtel. But the US engineering company has withdrawn from this venture.

The Commercial & Investment Directorate. This is in charge of the Products and Pipeline Marketing Co., which markets and distributes oil products in Nigeria, and Hyson Nigeria which is a JV with Dutch trader Vitol marketing oil products in West Africa.

Finance & Accounts. With the help of the World Bank, this now issues externally audited accounts.

The Corporate Services Directorate.

Slated for privatisation in the first phase, a 2000 target date put off to late 2003, are the processing directorate's units, Nigerian Petroleum Development Co. and Nigerian Gas Co. (NGC). Shell is interested in acquiring NGC and has appointed a bank to advise it on this matter.

A restructuring of NNPC had begun under Obaseki's predecessor Bayero who in late 1998 formed a special committee for the purpose. But Obaseki has adopted a new approach with the help of experts working under the supervision of President Obasanjo's office and Lukman (see background in Vol. 57, No. 8).