Nigeria plans to reorganize its state-owned oil company into five separate units - independent of each other and each charged with different responsibilities of exploration, production and distribution.

It is partly an effort to reign in corruption in the oil industry. Nigeria loses millions of dollars each year through corruption in its oil sector.

President Umaru Yar'Adua has appointed a national energy council to oversee the reorganization. He has given it six months to abolish the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and create the five new companies in its place. His decision follows a recommendation made by a panel set up seven years ago to consider ways of reforming Nigeria's oil industry.