Nigeria has concluded an eight-month oil licensing exercise, with 31 companies emerging as winners of 37 oil and gas blocks under the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) 2025 Licensing Round.

The process drew nearly 300 initial expressions of interest, narrowing to 143 qualified companies that submitted 200 technical and commercial bids for 37 of the 50 blocks on offer. The remaining 13 blocks, largely in frontier basins requiring further geological de-risking, attracted no bids. NUPRC said it would carry out additional work to make those assets more attractive before returning them to market.

Winning companies span onshore, shallow water and deepwater acreage across the Niger Delta, Benin Basin, Anambra Basin, Chad Basin and Benue Trough, and include firms such as Asharami, Rosem Energy, Network E&P, Blackrock Holdings and Stardeep Petroleum, among others. Licences will only be finalised once winners pay signature bonuses, secure ministerial approval and meet all post-award conditions under the Petroleum Industry Act.

NUPRC Chief Executive Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan said the assets could add roughly 500 million barrels to Nigeria’s reserves and 300,000 barrels per day of new production within three years, supporting the government’s target of three million barrels a day by 2030. She warned successful bidders that an award “is not a trophy to be held” but an obligation to drill, develop and produce, cautioning that companies failing to meet post-bid conditions within 90 days would forfeit their licences under a strict drill-or-drop policy.

Petroleum ministers Ekperikpe Ekpo and Heineken Lokpobiri both hailed the round as evidence of a more transparent, investor-friendly licensing regime under the Petroleum Industry Act, with Lokpobiri describing Nigeria as one of the world’s most attractive investment destinations given its strategic Gulf of Guinea location.

Source: orientalnewsng.com