“Drill-or-drop” era begins as NUPRC moves against dormant oil licences

By Adewale Sanyaolu

The era of oil companies holding on to prospecting licences without developing the assets is over, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, has declared.

Eyesan said the regulator is now strictly enforcing the “drill-or-drop” provision contained in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), compelling operators to either commence exploration activities or relinquish idle oil blocks.

She made this known while receiving a delegation from the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

According to her, the enforcement of Section 94 of the PIA has fundamentally changed the landscape of Nigeria’s upstream sector by eliminating the long-standing practice where operators held licences for decades without developing the assets.

She explained that the new regime has begun to attract more serious investors into Nigeria’s upstream sector, particularly in the ongoing 2025 licensing round, which is expected to boost the country’s petroleum reserves and unlock new exploration opportunities.

“The PIA has opened opportunities for both small and big players because there is now a drill-or-drop provision in the Act. In the past, we had operators who held licences for as long as 20 years and sat on those assets without doing anything. That era is now over,” Eyesan said.

She noted that the enforcement of the provision has expanded the pool of available assets and strengthened the commission’s capacity to organise more frequent bid rounds, with the possibility of conducting annual licensing rounds going forward.

Eyesan also expressed satisfaction with the level of interest shown by investors in the 2025 licensing round, describing the number of applicants that participated in the pre-qualification stage as impressive.

She explained that the licensing round offers 50 oil blocks, but the guidelines restrict each company—whether bidding independently or as part of a consortium—to a maximum of two blocks, a measure designed to encourage wider participation and promote fairness in the allocation process.

The NUPRC boss further disclosed that the commission has introduced additional safeguards to ensure transparency in the bid process by engaging an independent audit firm to scrutinise and validate the digital system used for the licensing exercise.

According to her, the outcome of the audit will be made public in order to strengthen investor confidence and reinforce the credibility of the process.

Earlier, the Director-General of the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone, Foday Mansaray, said the delegation visited Nigeria to understudy the country’s petroleum regulatory framework and draw lessons that could help strengthen Sierra Leone’s hydrocarbon sector.

Mansaray emphasised the need for deeper energy cooperation between Sierra Leone and Nigeria, describing Nigeria as a leading player in Africa’s oil and gas industry.

“We are here to collaborate with the NUPRC at a bilateral level and learn from Nigeria, our big brothers in the industry. We are a small country of about eight million people, but we are very ambitious,” he said, while also seeking the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise cooperation between both countries in the energy sector.