FG begins recovery of idle oil blocks to boost production

…Announces 25 oil block winners, NNPC Ltd, 9 others emerge reserve bidders

By Adewale Sanyaolu and Adanna Nnamani, Abuja

In a move that has left many in the petroleum industry stunned, the federal government has announced plans to recover idle oil blocks to accelerate production growth.

Commission Chief Executive (CCE) Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NUPRC), Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, disclosed this at the 2024 Licensing Round Commercial Bid Conference held in Lagos, yesterday.

The federal government has struggled for years with low oil production, falling short of achieving the target of two million barrels per day and beyond.

At the 2024 Pre Oil Bid- round Conference in June, Komolafe said over 90 per cent of oil fields allocated to investors in past oil bid rounds remained dormant.

“In the past, the award of oil blocks culminated in the non-development of over 90 per cent of marginal fields, thus denying the federal government of reaping the intended benefits because such awards were not based on technical and financial considerations,” he said.

The NUPRC boss also announced fresh oil licensing round for 2025, saying the licensing round will focus on underexplored assets, fallow fields, and natural gas development as part of Nigeria’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Komolafe emphasised that the NUPRC aims to make the licensing rounds an annual event to address challenges such as declining production and rising global competition.

According to him, Section 7(t) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) empowers the NUPRC to conduct periodic biddingrounds for the award of Petroleum Prospecting Licenses (PPLs) and Petroleum Mining Leases (PMLs).

This legislation, he said, provides a framework for unlocking Nigeria’s energy wealth while ensuring sustainability, equity and global competitiveness.

Meanwhile, the NUPRC boss announced the final results of the 2022/ 2023 Deepoffshore Licensing Round and the 2024 Licensing Round.

The results showed six winning bidders and four reserve bidders for the 2022/2023 Deep Offshore Licensing Round while 19 Winning bidders and six reserve bidders were announced for the 2024 licesning  round.

For the 2022/ 2023 Deep Offshore Licensing Round, SIFAX and  ROYALGATE  won the asset named PPL 300-DO while the asset code-named PPL 302- DO was won by OCEAN GATE ENGINEERING OIL AND GAS LIMITed with no firm announced as reserve bidders for the block.

For oil block PPL 303- DO, NUPRC announced MRS OIL AND GAS COMPANY LIMITED as the winning bid while the reserved Bidder is NNPC E&P Ltd.

For PPL 304-DO, SIFAX & ROYALGATE CONSORTIUM was, announced as the bid winner bid just as HOMELAND INTEGRATED OFFSHORE SERVICES LIMITED came up as the reserved bidder.PPL 305-DO oil block went to  HAKILAT OIL and GAS CONSORTIUM LIMITED as the winning bid, while NNPC E &P Ltd was announced as the reserved bidder.

For the sixth block in the 2022/2023 DEEPOFFSHORE LICENCING ROUND code-named PPL 306-DO, BISWAL OIL AND GAS LIMITED was announced as the winning bidwhile NNPC EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION LIMITED was announced as the reserved Bidder.