Nigerian state oil company to split up downstream subsidiary

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's state oil company chief said on Wednesday that the firm's downstream arm, Pipelines and Products Marketing Co (PPMC), would be split into three parts as part of an overhaul of the graft-ridden energy behemoth. "PPMC will be split into a pipelines company that will focus primarily on the maintenance of over five thousand kilometers (of) pipelines, a storage company that will maintain over 23 depots and a products marketing company," Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp, said in an emailed statement. Kachikwu was appointed in July and launched a three-pronged restructuring of NNPC that is to include an audit of the firm's notoriously shady accounts. In his statement, Kachikwu said Nigeria's hitherto neglected refineries would not be sold, as widely speculated, but oil firms in existing joint ventures with the NNPC would be "invited to support the running of the refineries in order to ensure efficiency". (Reporting By Julia Payne and Camillus Eboh; Editing by Mark Heinrich)