Nigeria has officially opened the 2025 Oil & Gas Licensing Round — a strategic move that positions Africa’s largest crude producer for a new wave of upstream investments, reserve additions, and gas-driven industrial growth.

At a high-level briefing in Abuja, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, unveiled the dedicated licensing portal br2025.nuprc.gov.ng, marking the formal commencement of one of the country’s most ambitious bid rounds in decades.

With 50 oil and gas blocks now on offer — covering onshore, shallow water, frontier basins and deepwater terrain — the Federal Government is targeting $10 billion in new investments and up to 400,000 barrels per day in additional production from fully developed assets.

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A New Licensing Round for a New Era

Komolafe noted that the launch follows President Bola Tinubu’s approval and aligns with Nigeria’s strategic shift toward transparency, competitiveness, and technology-enabled governance of the upstream sector.

The Commission emphasized that the new 2025 Oil Licensing Round builds on the unprecedented credibility achieved in the 2022 Mini-Bid Round and the historic 2024 Licensing Round — both concluded without litigation and widely commended by NEITI and global transparency observers.

This momentum, Komolafe said, is deliberate and central to Nigeria’s renewed ambition to reposition as Africa’s most attractive upstream destination.

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50 Blocks on Offer: A Diverse, Data-Rich Portfolio

The 2025 Licensing Round features one of the most diverse asset baskets in recent history:

• 15 Onshore Blocks
  
• 19 Shallow Water Blocks
  
• 15 Frontier Basin Assets
  
• 1 Deepwater Block
  

To de-risk investments and enhance exploration success, the NUPRC said it had reprocessed tens of thousands of kilometres of 2D/3D seismic data, providing what the Commission describes as “the highest-quality subsurface imaging available anywhere in Africa.”

This approach sharply reduces uncertainty, lowers entry costs and shortens time to first oil or gas.

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Strategic Objectives: Rebuilding Nigeria’s Upstream Engine

According to the Commission, the 2025 Licensing Round will drive:

• Boost to national reserves — with up to 2 billion barrels expected over the next decade
  
• Production expansion — targeting increased daily output
  
• Gas utilisation growth — a cornerstone of Nigeria’s industrial strategy
  
• Stronger indigenous participation — in line with the Petroleum Industry Act
  
• Thousands of skilled jobs — across seismic, drilling, engineering, services and logistics
  
• Investor confidence — through transparency and modern regulatory frameworks
  

The Commission also reduced signature bonuses to encourage broader participation.

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A Fully Digital, Two-Stage Bid Process

In alignment with global best practices, NUPRC introduced an end-to-end digital bid system with two major phases:

1. Qualification Stage

Applicants (individual firms or consortia) submit documentation for technical and financial assessment.
Only qualified applicants proceed to Stage 2.

2. Bid Stage

Shortlisted bidders submit their Technical and Commercial bids.
Winners will emerge at the commercial round.
The Commission stressed that company age is not a barrier—capacity, professionalism, and financial strength are the determining factors.

All guidelines are now available on the official portal and NUPRC website.

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BRANDECONOMY Insight

The 2025 Licensing Round is far more than a bid exercise — it’s a reset moment for Nigeria’s upstream competitiveness.

Three key takeaways:

1. Transparency is the new value proposition

Nigeria’s transition to a digital, litigation-free licensing framework sends a strong message to investors frustrated by legacy opacity. Capital follows clarity — and the NUPRC is deliberately signalling both.

2. Gas is the true strategic play

With global energy markets shifting, gas-rich frontier and shallow assets could drive Nigeria’s industrialisation agenda — from power to petrochemicals to export LNG.

3. Frontier basins are the next battleground

The inclusion of 15 frontier blocks underscores Nigeria’s intent to unlock new geographies — particularly in the North — a move with both economic and geopolitical implications.

If effectively executed, this licensing round could become one of the defining catalysts of the Tinubu administration’s energy reform era.

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