NUPRC launches Nigeria 2025 Licensing Round with $10bn investment potential

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has officially launched the Nigeria 2025 Licensing Round, unveiling a dedicated bid portal — br2025.nuprc.gov.ng — to boost investment, enhance transparency, and deepen exploration in the country’s upstream oil and gas sector.

The announcement was made on Monday by the Commission’s Chief Executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, during a press conference at the NUPRC headquarters in Abuja.

Recalling the success of past initiatives, Komolafe highlighted the 2022 Mini-Bid Round and the historic 2024 Licensing Round, both of which were conducted with high transparency, global competitiveness, and strong investor engagement.

Notably, the 2024 round concluded without any litigation and received commendations from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and other stakeholders.

With Presidential approval from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the 2025 Licensing Round offers 50 oil and gas blocks spanning onshore, swamp/shallow water, frontier basins, and deepwater terrains.

The breakdown includes 15 onshore blocks, 19 shallow water blocks, 15 frontier assets, and one deepwater block.

Engr. Komolafe outlined the key objectives of the round, including boosting national reserves, increasing production capacity, expanding gas utilization, creating thousands of jobs, enhancing indigenous participation, and reinforcing Nigeria’s commitment to transparency in line with Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) principles.

To further attract investment, the Commission has reduced signature bonuses and conducted extensive seismic surveys, reprocessing thousands of kilometres of 2D and 3D data to provide high-quality subsurface imagery.

These efforts are expected to lower exploration risks, reduce entry costs, accelerate the timeline to first oil or gas, and strengthen investor confidence.

“The Nigeria 2025 Licensing Round is expected to attract around $10 billion in investments, add up to 2 billion barrels of oil to national reserves over the next decade, and produce approximately 400,000 barrels per day once the blocks are fully operational,” Komolafe said.

The Commission has introduced a fully digital, two-stage bidding process — a qualification stage followed by a bid submission stage.

Age or date of incorporation of bidding companies is not a limiting factor; assessments will focus on technical capacity, professionalism, and financial capability.

During the qualification stage, interested parties or consortia must submit and have their applications evaluated in accordance with the Licensing Round Regulations and Guidelines.

Only shortlisted applicants will proceed to the bid stage, where they will submit technical and commercial bids under a confidentiality agreement.

All relevant documents, including Licensing Round Guidelines, Asset Teasers, Activity Schedule, and maps, have been published on the bid portal for immediate public access.

Engr. Komolafe concluded, “Transparency is key to investor confidence.

“The fully automated and digital bid process ensures credibility, efficiency, and alignment with global best practices, with winners emerging at the commercial bid stage.”