Nigeria is set to offer 50 oil blocks to investors in a fresh licensing round expected to attract $10 billion and raise national crude output by 400,000 barrels per day.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) announced the move in Abuja, stating that the 2025 bid round aligns with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) mandate for annual licensing.
NUPRC Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, said the blocks include 15 onshore, 19 shallow-water, 15 frontier assets and one deepwater block, all accessible through a dedicated portal, br2025.nuprc.gov.ng.
He noted that recent bid rounds were conducted with unprecedented transparency and completed without litigation, boosting investor confidence.
Komolafe added that reduced signature bonuses—now around N200 million—were designed to attract wider participation.
He said multi-client surveys and extensive reprocessing of seismic data have significantly de-risked exploration, lowered entry costs and positioned Nigeria to deliver the highest-quality subsurface imagery in Africa.
The licensing round is projected to add two billion barrels to national oil reserves over the next decade while expanding gas utilisation, creating thousands of jobs and deepening indigenous participation across the energy value chain.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has ordered a forensic audit of the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund managed by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
Lawmakers expressed concerns over alleged misapplication of the fund, stressing that under the PIA, its utilisation must follow National Assembly appropriation and strict adherence to statutory revenue collection timelines.