Nigeria’s upstream oil regulator has opened 50 oil and gas blocks for bidding under the 2025 licensing round, signalling a tougher stance against speculative investors and a renewed push to attract technically sound, financially capable operators.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said the licensing exercise spans five sedimentary basins and is aimed at strengthening reserves, boosting production, and reinforcing the country’s long-term energy security.
Speaking during a pre-bid webinar on Wednesday, the Commission’s Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said the bid round was structured to favour serious investors with proven technical expertise and strong balance sheets.
She explained that the regulator had adopted a strict merit-based evaluation process, under which only bidders with credible technical plans, financial capacity, and clear development timelines would advance.
According to Eyesan, the 50 blocks are spread across both mature and frontier terrains, giving investors access to a broad range of geological prospects while creating opportunities for long-term value creation.
In a departure from previous rounds, the Commission reviewed the commercial framework of the exercise with the approval of President Bola Tinubu. As part of the changes, signature bonuses have been set between $3 million and $7 million, a move designed to lower entry barriers while discouraging unserious bids.
Rather than prioritising aggressive cash offers, the new structure places greater weight on technical competence, quality of work programmes, financial strength, and speed to production, as Nigeria competes for increasingly mobile global capital.
Eyesan noted that the licensing round follows a five-stage process covering registration and pre-qualification, data access, technical bid submission, evaluation, and a commercial bid conference. She added that the entire process would be conducted in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, with digital platforms deployed to enhance transparency and public oversight.
All relevant licensing materials, she said, have been available on the Commission’s portal since December 1, 2025, with dedicated support channels created to respond to investor enquiries.
Providing further details, Amber Ndoma-Egba, Director of Lease Administration, Exploration and Acreage Management at NUPRC, said the blocks are located in the Chad Basin, Benue Trough, Anambra Basin, Bida Basin, and the Niger Delta Basin.
He explained that technical evaluation would focus on subsurface understanding, exploration and development plans, sustainability and decarbonisation strategies, evacuation planning, and host community development.
Ndoma-Egba added that the Commission approved a minimum work performance security of one per cent, although bidders may choose to commit more to improve their technical scores. Exploration timelines, he said, would be three years for onshore assets and five years for deepwater and frontier blocks.
The regulator confirmed that final winners would be selected using a weighted combination of technical and commercial scores, in line with the PIA.
The 2025 licensing round, officially launched in December, is expected to attract up to $10 billion in new investments, with the NUPRC describing it as a clear signal that Nigeria’s upstream sector is being repositioned for transparency, competitiveness, and long-term growth.
