The Nigerian government, on Monday, said 50 oil blocks would be leased to investors to raise $10 billion and increase oil production by an additional 400,000 barrels per day.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), now mandated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to hold a yearly licensing round, said 15 onshore blocks, 19 shallow water blocks, 15 frontier assets, and 1 deepwater block would be offered.
Announcing the move at a press event, Chief Executive of NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, said the development would expand investment, strengthen transparency, and deepen exploration in the upstream sector.
The Commission also launched the dedicated bid portal: br2025.nuprc.gov.ng.
Komolafe said the 2022 Mini-Bid Round and the historic 2024 Licensing Round were conducted with unprecedented transparency, global competitiveness, and strong investor engagement.
According to him, the 2024 Licensing Round was completed without a single litigation, adding that with Presidential approval, the 2025 Licensing Round would boost Nigeria’s reserves, increasing production capacity, expanding gas utilisation, creating thousands of jobs across the value chain, and enhancing indigenous participation.
With reduced signature bonuses now hovering around N200 million to attract greater investment and participation, Komolafe said the NUPRC has undertaken extensive multi-client surveys to further de-risk exploration, while 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.
“At the Commission, we acknowledge that transparency is key to investor confidence. To ensure that the bidding process is credible and seamless, the Commission has rolled out guidelines that are now available on its website. It has adopted a two-stage bidding process for the award of the Blocks, comprising a qualification stage and a bid stage.”
Reinforcing its commitment to transparency, Komolafe said the regulator introduced a two-stage, fully digital bidding process, comprising a qualification stage and a bid submission stage.
Winners will emerge at the commercial bid round.
“The qualification stage involves the submission and evaluation of applications by interested parties or consortia in accordance with the Regulation and the Guidelines. Applicants shall provide all information required for this stage,” Komolafe said.
“Only applicants who are adjudged qualified and subsequently shortlisted by the Commission shall proceed to the Bid Stage and will be required to execute a Confidentiality Agreement prior to participation.
“At the bid stage, shortlisted applicants or bidders shall submit their Technical and Commercial Bids in accordance with the Regulation, the Guidelines, and any other bidding documents issued by the Commission.
“Given our commitment to transparency and alignment with best practices, the bid process will be automated and digital. Winners will emerge at the commercial bid process.”
