NUPRC urges investors on 2026 licensing round

Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC)

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has urged investors to take advantage of Nigeria’s 2026 oil and gas licensing round, highlighting the country’s improving investment climate amid growing global energy uncertainties.

The Commission Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, made the call on Monday during 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.

Ms Eyesan told investors that Nigeria offers a stable investment environment and announced that the licensing round portal would officially open on 20 November 2026.

She urged prospective investors to explore the opportunities presented by the 2026 Licensing Round, which offers 40 oil and gas blocks.

“We are expecting investors to turn to Nigeria. We are going into another licensing round, and we will launch our bid portal on November 20. We expect to see interested investors because the environment is a lot more competitive,” she said.

“We have set a very attractive fiscal framework for investors. The overall environment is much 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 said Nigeria’s investment climate had improved following the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021 and the executive orders signed by President Bola Tinubu.

According to her, between 2021 and 2026, the commission conducted at least four successful licensing rounds, attracting additional investments into the country.

She said this represented a departure from the pre-PIA era, when licensing rounds were less frequent.

Ms Eyesan also highlighted Nigeria’s enormous gas potential, noting that the country holds an estimated 215 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas reserves but produces barely seven billion cubic feet (bcf) daily.

She said the gap between available reserves and current production presented significant opportunities for investors, particularly with major gas infrastructure projects in the pipeline.

“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 to Europe and will also meet regional demand. So, Nigeria is positioned to meet not just domestic supply,” the NUPRC chief executive said.

Ms Eyesan maintained that competition for investment in the global petroleum industry had intensified as more countries discovered oil and gas resources.

She said Nigeria had taken steps to position itself ahead of the competition by introducing reforms and making adjustments to attract the right category of investment.

“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 to unlock the huge resources we sit on,” she said.

On 7 October, the NUPRC announced the 2026 Licensing Round, offering 40 oil and gas blocks to prospective investors.

The announcement came less than three months after the commission concluded the bidding programme for its 2025 licensing round.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that 31 companies emerged as winners of 37 oil and gas blocks in the 2025 Licensing Round after the commercial bid conference held in Abuja in July.

The bidding process, conducted at the Transcorp Event Centre, attracted 143 companies, which submitted about 200 bids for 37 of the 50 oil and gas blocks offered by the commission.

The blocks span several terrains, including the Niger Delta onshore, shallow-water and deep-offshore areas, as well as the Benin, Anambra and Chad basins and the Benue Trough.

While 37 blocks attracted bids, the remaining 13 received no offers.

The NUPRC described the outcome as significant, noting that it was the first time Nigeria’s frontier basins, including the Benue Trough, Chad Basin, Anambra Basin and Benin Basin, had attracted such strong investor interest.

Following the 2025 licensing round, the commission also outlined plans to increase crude oil production by restoring more than 788,000 barrels per day of shut-in production and advancing offshore projects valued at an estimated $30 billion to $50 billion towards final investment decisions.