THE Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has moved to make Nigeria’s oil and gas sector more accessible to serious investors by lowering financial entry barriers and opening 50 oil and gas blocks for bidding in its 2025 licensing round.

The blocks, spread across five sedimentary basins, will be offered under a new commercial framework that reduces upfront costs while placing greater weight on technical competence, credible work programmes and speed to production.

Speaking during the 2025 licensing round pre-bid webinar on Wednesday, NUPRC Chief Executive, Ms Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said the revised structure was designed to attract long-term investors, eliminate speculative bidders and reposition Nigeria as a transparent, rules-based upstream destination.

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She explained that with the approval of President Bola Tinubu, the commission reviewed the commercial terms to make the process more competitive and accessible, particularly in a global environment where capital is increasingly mobile.

“Signature bonuses for the 2025 licensing round are now set within a value range of $3m to $7m. This reduces entry barriers and places greater weight on what truly matters – technical capability, credible work programmes, financial strength and the ability to deliver production within the shortest possible time,” Ms Eyesan said.

Unlike previous bid rounds that prioritised aggressive cash offers, the new model shifts focus to development speed, subsurface understanding and sustainable production plans. According to Eyesan, this approach would help Nigeria compete for global capital while ensuring only serious operators move forward.

She described the licensing round as a strategic intervention to grow reserves, raise production and strengthen Nigeria’s energy security.

“This upstream sector is serious business. It is for long-term investment, and it is an open invitation to partnership, transparency and shared responsibility as we work together to shape the next phase of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry,” she said.

The 50 blocks are located across the Chad Basin, Benue Trough, Anambra Basin, Bida Basin and the Niger Delta Basin, giving investors access to both frontier and mature terrains.

Ms Eyesan noted that the commission had adopted a strictly merit-based process, where only firms with strong technical and financial capacity, professionalism and clear development plans would qualify.

The bid process will follow five stages: registration and pre-qualification, data acquisition, technical bid submission, evaluation and a commercial bid conference. Digital tools will be used throughout the process to ensure transparency and public accountability.

She stressed that the entire exercise would comply strictly with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and remain open to public and institutional scrutiny through Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and other oversight bodies.

Director of Lease Administration, Exploration and Acreage Management at NUPRC, Mr Amber Ndoma-Egba, said the technical evaluation would focus on subsurface understanding, exploration work programmes, development concepts, sustainability, decarbonisation plans and host community development.

He added that to further lower the financial burden on bidders, the commission approved a minimum work performance security of just 1 percent, although firms could voluntarily increase it to boost their technical scores.

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Bidders will be required to outline their exploration plans within the initial exploration period: three years for onshore assets and five years for deepwater and frontier blocks.

Mr Ndoma-Egba confirmed that final winners would emerge based on a weighted combination of technical and commercial scores, in line with the PIA.

The NUPRC said the 2025 licensing round, which officially commenced on December 1, 2025, was targeting about $10 billion in new investments and was intended to signal that Nigeria’s upstream sector had been re-engineered for long-term value creation.

“This is not merely a bidding exercise. It is a clear signal of a re-imagined upstream sector, anchored on the rule of law, driven by data, aligned with global investment realities and focused on long-term value creation,” Ms Eyesan said.