FG Lowers Entry Barriers as Nigeria Offers 50 Oil Blocks in 2025 Licensing Round
The Federal Government has lowered entry barriers in Nigeria’s 2025 oil and gas licensing round, offering 50 oil blocks for bidding in a move aimed at boosting crude oil output, attracting fresh investment, and improving transparency in the upstream sector.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) disclosed this during a pre-bid webinar for potential investors, where it announced a significant reduction in signature bonuses to between $3 million and $7 million. This represents a sharp drop from the $10 million charged in 2024 and a dramatic decline from the nearly $200 million required in earlier licensing rounds.
According to the regulator, the revised structure is designed to shift emphasis away from aggressive cash bids toward technical capability, credible work programmes, financial strength, and speed to production, as Nigeria competes for mobile global capital.
A total of 50 oil and gas blocks are on offer in the delayed 2025 licensing round. These include 15 onshore blocks, 19 shallow-water assets, 15 frontier basin blocks, and one deepwater block, spread across key sedimentary basins such as the Niger Delta, Chad Basin, Benue Trough, Anambra Basin, and Bida Basin.
The Federal Government targets an increase in oil production to 2.7 million barrels per day by 2027, up from the current output of about 1.5 million barrels per day, as part of efforts to grow government revenue, expand reserves, and strengthen Nigeria’s energy security.
Speaking at the pre-bidding conference in Lagos, NUPRC Chief Executive Officer, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, assured investors that the 2025 licensing round would operate within a stable, transparent, and predictable regulatory framework.
“You are not navigating uncertainty. You are operating with a framework deliberately designed to inspire confidence,” Eyesan said, noting that the round is the first she will oversee since her appointment in December.
She added that the entire licensing process would be fully digital, allowing investors to access geological data and submit bids through an online portal. To further enhance transparency, the process will be monitored by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and other oversight agencies, in line with global best practices.
Eyesan described the licensing round as a strategic intervention to grow reserves, improve production, and reposition Nigeria’s upstream oil sector for long-term value creation amid a rapidly evolving global energy landscape.
“This upstream sector is serious business. It is for long-term investment and an open invitation to partnership, transparency, and shared responsibility,” she said.
The NUPRC boss stressed that only companies with strong technical and financial credentials would advance in the process, which follows a five-stage framework comprising registration and pre-qualification, data acquisition, technical bid submission, evaluation, and a commercial bid conference.
She confirmed that the entire exercise would comply strictly with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, with digital tools deployed to ensure public accountability and institutional scrutiny.
Global energy firms have already shown interest in the round, with Chevron confirming its intention to participate and TotalEnergies also expressing interest.
In a technical presentation, Amber Ndoma-Egba, Director of Lease Administration, Exploration and Acreage Management at NUPRC, explained that technical evaluations would focus on subsurface understanding, exploration work programmes, development concepts, sustainability, decarbonisation objectives, and host community plans.
“Technically weak firms will not scale through this process,” Ndoma-Egba said, adding that bidders must clearly outline their exploration plans within the initial exploration period—three years for onshore assets and five years for deepwater and frontier blocks.
On commercial terms, the commission approved a minimum work performance security of one per cent, a move aimed at supporting investment, while allowing bidders to increase the amount voluntarily to improve their technical scores.
Ndoma-Egba also confirmed that final winnerso9ooo9would be selected using a weighted combination of technical and commercial scores, fully aligned with the Petroleum Industry Act.
The NUPRC officially announced the commencement of the 2025 petroleum licensing round on December 1, 2025, with the government targeting about $10 billion in new upstream investments.
Eyesan concluded that the licensing round sends a strong signal to global investors that Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas sector has been re-engineered for competitiveness, transparency, and long-term growth.
“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, and aligned with global investment realities,” she said.