FG Begins 2024 Bid Round, Puts 12 Greenfield Oil Blocks On Offer

The federal government said it has commenced the process for the 2024 oil bid round with 12 oil blocks on offer and seven deep offshore blocks from last year’s bid round.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, (NUPRC), which disclosed this yesterday, said the process will be concluded by January next year.

The commission chief executive, Gbenga Komolafe made these known during his presentation at the maiden NEITI House Dialogue in Abuja, said the federal government is targeting injection of $3 billion capital investment to fund projects in the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) and the creation of 300,000 jobs.

He said other potential economic and social benefits from flare gas commercialisation programme: six million households given access to clean energy through LPG; 20 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year eliminated: 600,000MT of LPG unlocked per year while 2.5 GW power generated from new and existing IPPs.

Speaking on the bid round, Engr. Komolafe said the new green field oil blocks on offer include six acreages located on continental shelf, four deep offshore blocks and two onshore blocks in the Niger Delta.

He explained that the Commission has put in place regulations to create a conducive investment environment by ensuring regulatory certainty, vacating entry barriers and promoting global competitiveness.

He said: “The licencing round that we are putting in place is designed to enhance the quality data set and it is going to be conducted in a fair, and competitive bidding process in a non-discriminating manner”.

He noted that some of the criteria required for acquiring the blocks include technical competence, financial capacity and viability.

He also disclosed that the Commission generated N4.344 trillion in revenues in 2023, a rise of 15 per cent from N3.78 trillion generated in 2022.

The CCE also said that Nigeria’s production output, both crude oil and condensates stood at 1,532,530 barrels per day as at 25th April 2024

According to him, the commission has introduced initiatives for ramping up crude oil production in the country.

These include: timely approvals of Field Development Plans; adoption of new technologies (IOR/ EOR); reduction of unit technical cost; production optimisation: ensuring wells are tested periodically and produced at optimal rates; transparency in hydrocarbon metering & accounting; vacating entry barriers including huge front-loaded entry fees, regulatory bottlenecks etc; identifying candidate wells for workover and interventions; effective performance monitoring of work programme obligations; as well as monitoring financial viability

Speaking at the dialogue, the executive secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, (NEITI), Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji explained that the NEITI House Quarterly Dialogue will host notable policy makers in Nigeria’s extractive industries and related sectors, who will address issues that are of interest and topical to the industry.