The Federal Government has announced that 13 oil and gas blocks offered during the 2025 Licensing Round will be returned to the licensing basket after they failed to attract investor bids.
The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, disclosed this at the 2025 Commercial Bid Conference in Abuja.
Eyesan explained that although 50 oil and gas blocks were offered for bidding, only 37 blocks received representations from prospective investors, leaving the remaining 13 without bids.
She revealed that 143 companies eventually participated in the commercial bidding process, submitting approximately 200 bids for the available assets. She described the level of participation as encouraging for Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector.
According to Eyesan, investor interest was initially much higher, with nearly 300 companies expressing interest before the prequalification stage reduced the number to 196 companies. The process was further narrowed to the 143 firms that submitted commercial bids.
The licensing round, announced in November 2025 under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, offered blocks across seven sedimentary basins, including the Niger Delta, shallow offshore, deep offshore, Benin Basin, Anambra Basin, Chad Basin and Benue Trough.
She noted that the strong interest from investors signals growing confidence in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, reflecting improving perceptions of the country’s upstream investment environment.
Winning bids are being assessed using a weighted evaluation that combines signature bonus commitments, proposed work programmes and performance security, ensuring that licences are awarded to investors with the technical capacity, financial strength and operational expertise needed to increase exploration and production.
