…Opens licensing round portal for investors

By Adewale Sanyaolu

To attract fresh investments into the oil and gas sector, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), yesterday, announced the official commencement of the Nigeria 2025 Licensing Round, marking another major step in the federal government’s drive to expand investment, strengthen transparency, and deepen exploration in the upstream sector.

The announcement and unveiling of the portal were made by the Commission’s Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, during a press conference at the Commission headquarters in Abuja.

The CCE recalled that recent licensing initiatives, particularly the 2022 Mini-Bid Round and the historic 2024 Licensing Round, were conducted with unprecedented transparency, global competitiveness, and strong investor engagement.

Notably, the 2024 Licensing Round was completed without a single litigation and earned commendations from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and other stakeholders.

Komolafe said that, with Presidential approval from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the NUPRC has now placed 50 oil and gas blocks on offer across onshore, swamp/shallow water, frontier basins, and deepwater terrain.

A breakdown of the blocks includes 15 onshore blocks, 19 shallow water blocks, 15 frontier assets and 1 deepwater block.

The Commission outlined the key objectives of the 2025 Licensing Round, which include boosting Nigeria’s reserves, increasing production capacity, expanding gas utilisation, creating thousands of jobs acrossthe value chain, enhancing indigenous participation, and reinforcing Nigeria’s commitment to transparency in line with EITI principles.

As a business enabler, and with Mr. President’s approval, the NUPRC has also reduced signature bonuses to attract greater investment and participation.

To further de-risk exploration, the NUPRC has undertaken extensive multi-client surveys, reprocessing thousands of kilometres of 2D and 3D seismic data to deliver the highest-quality subsurface imagery available in Africa. This, the Commission noted, sharply reduces uncertainty, lowers entry costs, accelerates time to first oil or gas, and enhances investor confidence.

The 2025 Licensing Round is projected to attract about $10 billion in investments, add up to 2 billion barrels to national oil reserves over the next decade, and deliver an estimated 400,000 barrels per day from fully developed assets.

He said, “The Nigeria 2025 licensing round is therefore expected to attract about $10 billion in investments and add up to 2 billion barrels of oil output over the next 10 years with an estimated 400,000 barrels/Day of production volumes when the blocks are fully operational.