NUPRC mulls biannual licence bid rounds

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) is planning to hold oil bid licensing rounds either annually or biannually, aiming to boost the country's crude oil production. NUPRC Chief Executive Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan shared these plans during an interview with S&P Global. The objective of these bid rounds is to make more assets available to the market and stimulate churn on abandoned concessions.

The Commission intends to conduct these events annually, with a turnaround time of six to seven months between iterations.

Eyesan stated that Nigeria's aim is to revitalize its oil output by maintaining a pace of at least one bid round per year. The last bid round held last month covered the Niger Delta region, Benin, Anambra, and Chad Basins, and is expected to increase Nigeria's oil production by 300,000 barrels per day (b/d) within the first three years. Successive bid rounds could bring an increase of 300,000-600,000 b/d.

The next auctioning is scheduled for early October at the latest, including new acreage such as the 13 unlicensed blocks returned to the pool from the previous round. These new assets will span Nigeria's deepwater, shallow water, and potentially frontier onshore basins. The Commission is focusing on bringing only viable assets to the market.

Eyesan acknowledged the presence of some problematic blocks, having taken a gamble on certain licenses. She emphasized that the target audience for this round is not primarily the major players in the industry, and the new drill-or-drop provisions aim to prevent passive ownership that has hobbled the sector.