Nigeria’s petroleum regulator has granted provisional tenders to develop 57 marginal oilfields, sources in the industry revealed this to Reuters.
It was learnt that provisional award letters were sent by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) last week, requesting payment within 45 days in order to secure the awards.
It was gathered that the deal could get the government $500 million in signature bonuses.
A DPR spokesman could not confirm this to Reuters as call, email or text messages seeking comment were not responded to.
Marginal fields are smaller oil blocks typically developed by indigenous companies.
Nigeria is looking to production from the fields to bolster state finances and increase local participation in the oil sector, which provides the bulk of the country’s foreign exchange.
While local companies have become increasingly important to the industry, it remains dominated by international oil majors.
Of the more than 600 companies that applied for pre-qualification, 161 were shortlisted to move to the final round of the bidding process.
The 57 oil fields involved in the current auction were launched last June.
They are part of the first marginal field round in nearly 20 years.
“For the signature bonus, what we did internally was to look at the Competent Person Report and objectively estimate the average signature bonus on that field,” said Sarki Auwalu, Director of DPR.
“Some fields are high, while some fields are low. We estimate to have not less than $500 million, which is very much on the conservative side.”
To ease pressure on domestic reserves, Auwalu noted that signature bonuses will be paid either in United States Dollars or Nigerian Naira.
