NUPRC opens bidding for 40 oil, gas blocks November 20

By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) on Monday disclosed that bidding for 40 oil and gas blocks under the 2026 licensing round will commence on November 20, 2026. The Commission Chief Executive, Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, disclosed this at a roundtable discussion titled, ‘Energy Sovereignty in an Interconnected World: Aligning National Priorities, Markets and Global Security’, at the 2026 ADIPEC Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi.

In a statement by the Commission, Eyesan, who urged international investors to take advantage of Nigeria’s investment opportunities, said the country had become more competitive through improved security, attractive fiscal terms and incentives designed to reduce operating costs. She said: “We are expecting investors to turn to Nigeria. We are going in for another licensing round and we will be launching our bid portal on November 20.

We expect to see interested investors because the environment is a lot more competitive. “We have set a very attractive fiscal framework for investors. The entire environment is a lot more secure. We have been able to manage costs with a lot of incentives for investors and we expect to see investors take up the offer when we open the portal.” The NUPRC chief executive attributed the improvement in Nigeria’s investment climate to the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, enacted in 2021, as well as executive orders signed by President Bola Tinubu.

She said the commission had conducted at least four successful licensing rounds between 2021 and 2026, attracting investments into the country’s oil and gas industry. According to her, this represents a departure from the pre-PIA era when licensing rounds were less frequent, adding that the reforms had strengthened Nigeria’s competitiveness in attracting upstream investments.

On the country’s gas potential, Eyesan said Nigeria had an estimated 215 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves but was producing barely seven billion cubic feet per day, leaving significant opportunities for investors to develop the resource. She said recently completed and planned gas infrastructure projects would help unlock supplies, improve domestic availability and position Nigeria to serve regional and international markets.

“The stars are already aligned. For gas infrastructure, we just completed very major infrastructure projects that will unlock gas supply in the country and the sub-region. We talk about two major projects on the drawing board to move gas through the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic Gas Pipeline and Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline. Again, this gas will go somewhere in Europe and will also meet regional demands.

So, Nigeria is positioned to meet not just domestic supply,” she said. Eyesan noted that competition for investments had intensified globally, with more countries discovering petroleum resources and seeking to attract international capital. She said Nigeria had taken steps to address factors investors consider before committing funds, including execution risks, costs, project delays and policy uncertainty.

According to her, the Commission was determined to minimise these risks and create an enabling environment for the investments required to develop the country’s vast oil and gas resources. “We understand that investors will prize execution risk, cost, delays and also uncertainty and so what we have done in Nigeria is to ensure that we guard against these risks and then attract the investment required to enable us unlock the huge resources we sit on,” the NUPRC boss stated.