2025 Licensing Round: Winners of 50 Oil Blocks Emerge July 21 – NUPRC

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said that winners for 50 oil and gas blocks across onshore, shallow water, deep offshore and frontier basins in the 2025 bid round will be announced on July 21, 2026, during the Commercial Bid Conference for the 2025 Licensing Round, the regulator said on its X handle on Monday.

NUPRC said the conference would conclude an eight-month licence round that began on December 1, 2025, after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the exercise under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

The Commission said the 50 blocks include 15 onshore, 19 shallow-water, 15 frontier and one deep-offshore block, covering basins such as the Niger Delta, Chad Basin, Benue Trough, Anambra and Bida.

The regulator said the round aims to attract about $10 billion in fresh investment and to unlock discovered but undeveloped fields, fallow assets and gas resources. NUPRC described the 2025 round as the third licensing exercise under the PIA framework and stressed it is designed to prioritise natural gas development.

NUPRC outlined a five-stage process for the round — registration and pre-qualification, data acquisition, technical bid submission and evaluation, and the commercial bid conference — followed by ministerial approval and contracting. The Commission said it notified pre-qualified applicants on March 16, 2026, and closed technical and commercial bids on June 12, 2026.

NUPRC chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, had said the selection would be merit-based and would exclude weaker applicants.

She said only candidates with strong technical and financial credentials, professionalism and credible development plans would advance, and that winners would be chosen on a weighted combination of technical and commercial scores.

To widen participation, the federal government fixed signature bonuses for the round in a prescribed range of $3 million to $7 million per block, the Commission said, adding that bids outside that range would be non-compliant and excluded.

NUPRC said it would resolve the tied highest bids within the range by conducting a sealed rebid for the signature bonus.

NUPRC said successful bidders will receive Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs) and may elect either a Concession or a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) framework, noting that the choice of framework will determine fiscal terms for up to two decades.

The Commission said bidders were required to present host community development plans and to commit to remit 3 per cent of operating expenditure to Host Community Development Trusts. It said decarbonisation objectives and broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements were mandatory parts of submissions.

NUPRC warned that applicants with government debts, those that had previously failed to develop licences “vigorously and in a business-like manner,” or those found non-compliant with applicable laws could be disqualified at any stage.

The regulator said it expects ministerial approval and formal contracting between July and October 2026, after which awardees must execute concession contracts before licences take legal effect.

Recall that during the 25th Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy Week in Abuja, the NUPRC issued PPLs to 12 companies across 19 blocks from the 2024 round. The Commission named recipients, including Boron Energy Limited, Energy Marketing and Supply Limited, Sahara Deepwater Resources Limited, Tulkan Energy E&P Company Limited and said that the exercise showed the licensing pipeline was functioning.

Industry sources said they will closely watch the July 21 outcome for signals on who wins and how the capped signature bonus and lower entry barriers affected competition. NUPRC said it plans to launch a 2026 Licensing Round later in the year.