The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) on Monday opened bidding for 50 oil and gas blocks, targeting $10 billion in investment.
Announcing the commencement of the 2025 oil block licensing round at a press briefing on Monday, the NUPRC Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, said the bidding will add 2 billion barrels of oil output over the next decade.
Mr Komolafe said the 2025 block licensing round would last for approximately six months.
A licensing round is a process by which the government grants oil and gas exploration and production rights to companies through a competitive bidding process.
“Consolidating on the achievements of the 2024 licensing round, the commission is proud to formally announce the commencement of the Nigeria 2025 licensing round and the launch of the licensing round online portal.
“Following the gracious approval of President Bola Tinubu, the NUPRC has listed 50 oil and gas blocks across offshore swamp and shallow waters and, of course, offshore terrains spanning diverse terrains,” Mr Komolafe said.
Of these 50 blocks, he said 15 are onshore assets, 19 are shallow water assets, 15 are frontier assets, and one is a deep water asset.
“The licensing round is expected to attract about $10 billion in investment and add up to 2 billion barrels of oil output over the next 10 years, with an estimated 400,000 barrels per day of production volumes when the blocks are fully operational.”
According to him, the key objective of the Nigeria 2025 licensing round is to grow oil and gas reserves through aggressive exploration and development efforts.
“This will help to increase Nigeria’s production capacity and government revenue, create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, from technical oilfield roles to supporting services, logistics supply chain, infrastructure, local content and local content, especially in regions where blocks are located,” he said.
He added that the bidding round would help expand opportunities for gas utilisation and development in Nigeria in the field of energy transition.
Mr Komolafe said the NUPRC, as a business enabler and in line with the president’s approval, has also reduced the applicable signature bonuses to attract investments.
“What we are saying here is that the entry barrier has been significantly lowered. To make this exercise competitive with the best jurisdictions,” he said.
He said to ensure that the bidding process is credible and seamless, the commission rolled out guidelines, which are now available on its website.
“It has adopted a two-stage bidding process for the award of the blocks, comprising a qualification stage and a bid stage. The qualification stage involves the submission and evaluation of applications by interested parties or consultees in accordance with the regulations and guidelines.
“Applicants shall provide all information required for this stage. Only applicants who are just qualified and subsequently shortlisted by the commission shall proceed to the bid stage and will be required to execute a confidentiality agreement prior to participation,” he stated.
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At the bid stage, Mr Komolafe said shortlisted applicants or bidders shall submit their technical and commercial bids in accordance with the bid regulation, the guidelines and any other bidding documents issued by the commission.
“Given our commitment to transparency and alignment with best practices, the bid process will be automated and digital. Bidders will emerge at the end of the commercial bid process.
“The Nigeria 2025 licensing round is a major window for investments in Nigeria as it offers easier participation, transparency and comprehensive subsurface data. It further reflects President Bola Tinubu’s charge to the commission that Nigeria must not only be open for business, but Nigeria must be irresistible for investment,” he said.
Mr Komolafe said the commission has moved to de-risk exploration.
Through extensive multi-client surveys, he added that the commission has reprocessed thousands of kilometres of 2D and 3D seismic data, producing sharper, high-resolution images of the petroleum systems and reducing the uncertainties that once ended exploration decisions.
“For prospective investors, this means entering a market where uncertainty is shrinking and where opportunity is backed by the richest, high-quality subsurface data available anywhere in Africa.
“This wealth of high-quality geophysical datasets means lower exploration risk, improved probability of discovery, faster appraisal timelines, reduced entry costs and accelerated journey from licensing to first oil and gas,” he added.
