By Muhammed Abubakar, Reporting
IN a major push to expand investment, strengthen transparency and deepen exploration in the upstream petroleum sector, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has formally launched the Nigeria 2025 Licensing Round, alongside a dedicated bid portal: br2025.nuprc.gov.ng.
The Commission Chief Executive (CCE), Engr Gbenga Komolafe, announced the commencement of the round on Monday during a press conference at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Komolafe noted that recent licensing exercises — notably the 2022 Mini-Bid Round and the landmark 2024 Licensing Round — were conducted with unprecedented transparency, global competitiveness, and strong investor interest.
He added that the 2024 round was completed without a single litigation and received commendations from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and other stakeholders.
With presidential approval from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, the NUPRC has placed 50 oil and gas blocks on offer across onshore, shallow water, frontier basins and deepwater terrains. These comprise 15 onshore blocks, 19 shallow water blocks, 15 frontier assets and one deepwater block.
According to the Commission, the 2025 Licensing Round aims to bolster Nigeria’s reserves, increase production capacity, expand gas utilisation, generate thousands of jobs across the value chain, enhance indigenous participation and reinforce the nation’s commitment to transparency in line with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
Komolafe explained that the federal government recently approved a reduction in signature bonuses to encourage investment.
To further minimise exploration risks, the Commission has undertaken extensive seismic surveys and reprocessed thousands of kilometres of 2D and 3D data to deliver some of the highest-quality subsurface imagery on the continent.
These efforts, he said, are expected to reduce uncertainty, lower entry costs and accelerate time to first oil or gas, thereby boosting investor confidence.
The licensing round is anticipated to attract around $10 billion in investment, add up to 2 billion barrels to national reserves over the next decade, and deliver approximately 400,000 barrels per day when the awarded blocks reach full development.
“At the Commission, we acknowledge that transparency is key to investor confidence,” he stated. “To ensure a credible and seamless process, we have rolled out detailed guidelines now available on our website.
The award process will follow a two-stage structure: a qualification stage and a bid stage.”
Reaffirming its commitment to openness, the NUPRC has adopted a fully digital, automated bidding system.
The Commission emphasised that the age or date of incorporation of bidding companies will not be a limiting factor, as evaluations will focus strictly on technical competence, professionalism and financial strength. Final winners will emerge during the commercial bid stage.
Komolafe explained: “At the qualification stage, applicants or consortia must submit all required information for evaluation. Only those adjudged qualified will proceed to the bid stage, where they will be required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement prior to participation.”
“At the bid stage, shortlisted firms will submit their technical and commercial bids in accordance with the Regulations, the Guidelines and other documents issued by the Commission. The entire process will be digital, and winners will emerge transparently at the commercial bid round.”
The NUPRC has already uploaded the Licensing Round Guidelines, Asset Teasers, Activity Schedule, Maps and other relevant documents on the dedicated bid portal, with immediate effect.
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