Plans to split Nigeria's Pipeline and Products marketing company into Three underway

In a move which may be first amongst a series of much needed reforms, The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),Dr Ibe Kachikwu has revealed that plans are underway to unbundle the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) into three different companies. Kachikwu, during an official tour of the Okrika Jetty and the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited yesterday, stated that the PPMC would be split into a pipelines company that would focus primarily on maintenance of the over 5000 kilometers pipelines of the corporation, a storage company that would maintain all the over 23 depots, and a products marketing company that would market and sell petroleum products. He mentioned that the move would ensure that the right set of skills is rightly positioned and the number of leakages in terms of pipelines breaks and products loss is reduced to the barest minimum. The GMD noted that the ongoing phased rehabilitation of all the state-owned refineries would be accelerated with much vigour with the aim of reducing petroleum products importation into the country, adding that at full capacity, all the refineries could supply 20 million litres of premium motor spirit otherwise known as petrol on a daily basis. Kachikwu affirmed that the refineries would not be sold but would be a joint venture with partners with established track records of success in refining, who would be invited to support the running of the refineries in order to ensure efficiency. According to the GMD, efforts are in top gear to fix all the crude and petroleum products pipelines across the country. He stressed that the Nigerian Air Force would be engaged to provide aerial survey of the pipelines, the Nigerian Army Engineering corps to fix and police the pipelines while the Nigerian Navy will provide marine surveillance for the network of pipelines.