The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has formally activated the online portal for the Nigeria 2025 Licensing Round, marking a major milestone in the government’s push to expand upstream investment and enhance transparency in oil and gas exploration.
Commission Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, announced the launch of the portal — br2025.nuprc.gov.ng — during a media briefing at the agency’s Abuja headquarters on Monday.
Komolafe explained that the portal’s rollout underscores the Commission’s renewed commitment to openness, efficiency, and investment growth. He noted that previous licensing exercises — particularly the 2022 Mini-Bid Round and the landmark 2024 Licensing Round — were executed with unprecedented transparency and drew strong investor interest without attracting a single litigation.
50 Oil and Gas Blocks Placed on Offer
With the approval of President Bola Tinubu, the NUPRC has opened bidding for 50 oil and gas blocks, cutting across onshore, swamp, shallow-water, frontier basins, and deepwater environments.
According to Komolafe, the breakdown includes:
- 15 onshore blocks
- 19 shallow-water blocks
- 15 frontier basin assets
- 1 deepwater block
He added that the objectives of the 2025 Licensing Round include increasing reserves, expanding production capacity, boosting gas utilisation, supporting indigenous players, and promoting job creation across the value chain. The initiative also reinforces Nigeria’s alignment with global transparency standards under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
To encourage broader participation, the Commission—following presidential approval—has reduced signature bonuses, making the exercise more accessible to investors.
Improved Geological Data and Digital Bidding
Komolafe noted that the NUPRC has conducted extensive multi-client surveys and reprocessed thousands of kilometres of 2D and 3D seismic data, providing what he described as the highest-quality subsurface imagery currently available in Africa.
This enhancement reduces exploration risk, lowers entry costs, accelerates time to first production, and boosts investor confidence.
He revealed that the 2025 Licensing Round is expected to attract around $10 billion in capital inflows, add up to two billion barrels to national reserves over the next decade, and potentially generate 400,000 barrels per day from fully developed assets.
To uphold transparency, the Commission has introduced a fully digital, two-stage bidding structure — a qualification stage followed by a bid submission stage. The system is designed to ensure fairness, clarity, and efficiency throughout the process.
Komolafe stressed that the age or date of incorporation of participating companies will not limit their eligibility. Instead, the selection criteria will prioritise technical competence, professionalism, and financial capacity.
Shortlisted applicants will be required to execute a confidentiality agreement before advancing to the bid phase, where technical and commercial proposals will be submitted for evaluation.
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