The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has announced that 13 of the 50 oil and gas blocks offered under the 2025 Licensing Round will be returned to the national licensing pool after they failed to receive bids from prospective investors.
The Chief Executive of the commission, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, disclosed this on Tuesday during the 2025 Commercial Bid Conference in Abuja.
According to Eyesan, although 50 blocks were made available during the licensing exercise, investor interest was recorded in only 37 assets.
"At the end of the exercise, we had 50 blocks on offer, but we only had representation for 37 of those 50 blocks. Thirteen of those blocks will be returning back to the basket," she said.
The commission also revealed that 143 companies participated in the commercial bidding process, submitting about 200 bids for the available acreage.
Eyesan described the level of participation as a positive signal for Nigeria's upstream petroleum sector, noting that the licensing round initially attracted interest from nearly 300 companies.
"We have a total of 143 companies showing interest for 200 bids. That, for us, was remarkable, and I must say thank you.
"When we started the journey, we got interest from almost 300 companies. I repeat, almost 300 companies. That, in my view, was an indication that the tide has turned for Nigeria," she said.
She explained that the number of interested companies was reduced during the prequalification process, with 196 firms progressing to the technical and commercial evaluation stage before the field was further narrowed to the 143 companies that eventually submitted commercial bids.
The 2025 Licensing Round was launched on November 11, 2025, under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, with 50 oil and gas blocks offered across seven sedimentary basins.
The acreage comprises 16 Niger Delta onshore blocks, 18 shallow water blocks, one deep offshore block, three onshore blocks in the Benin Basin, four in the Anambra Basin, four in the Chad Basin and four in the Benue Trough.
The bid portal opened on December 1, 2025, while a pre-bid conference was held on January 14, 2026, in Lagos to outline the bidding requirements and evaluation process for prospective investors.
Registration and submission of prequalification documents closed on February 27, 2026, with the prequalification exercise concluding on March 16.
NUPRC said successful bidders will not be determined solely by the highest financial offers. Instead, bids are being assessed using a weighted evaluation framework that considers signature bonus commitments, proposed work programmes and performance security, alongside technical and commercial capabilities.
The commission said the approach is intended to ensure that petroleum assets are awarded to companies with the financial capacity, technical expertise and operational capability required to accelerate exploration, increase production and support long-term development of Nigeria's upstream petroleum industry.