Nigeria’s open oil round lures investors to untapped basins

Nigeria closed out an eight-month push to overhaul how it sells drilling rights, and the results suggest the strategy is working: explorers who once shunned the country’s remote frontier territories are now lining up for a piece of them.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) wrapped its Commercial Bid Conference this week, marking the end of a bidding round that regulators say restored investor confidence in Africa’s largest oil producer at a moment when the industry has been consolidating around fewer, safer bets.

The scale of interest surprised even the Commission. Fifty blocks were put up across seven terrains, ranging from the well-picked-over Niger Delta to basins that international majors have mostly ignored for decades — the Chad Basin and the Benue Trough among them. Roughly 300 companies expressed initial interest. After prequalification screening pared that group to 196, some 143 firms ultimately filed 200 technical and commercial bids covering 37 of the 50 blocks on offer. Thirteen blocks drew no bids at all.

Unsurprisingly, the deepest pool of interest remained in familiar territory. The Niger Delta’s shallow-water acreage was the most fought-over terrain, with 18 blocks awarded, followed by 16 in the onshore Delta. But regulators pointed to a different number as the round’s real headline: 15 blocks awarded across four frontier basins — Benin, Anambra, Chad and Benue Trough — regions NUPRC described as having never before attracted this level of bidder appetite.

Thirty-one companies emerged with awards. They include SSonic Petroleum, CFP Pipeline and Flowlines, Dutchford E&P, Attabanson Global, Rosem Energy, Pivot-GIS, Network E&P, Asharami, LexOil, BVOF and Gupsco Energy, the latter picking up two blocks. Saratoga, Volante, Concept-Reel Petroleum Services, Clinton Oil Field and Nuway Oaklane also secured acreage, with Concept-Reel and Clinton Oil Field each landing two blocks.

Rounding out the winners are Ramec, Italia, Blueridge E&P, Up Energies, AYM Shafa, Blackrock Holdings, Funtay Integrated Business, Riparian Development and Production, Nikstallis — which took two awards, Stardeep Petroleum, Dakoda & U, Southborne Oil and Gas, Lanaka Petroleum, Highban Resources and Eyre Energy.

A win at the podium, however, is not the same as a lease in hand. NUPRC Chief Executive Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan was explicit that provisional awards only become binding once companies pay their signature bonuses and commit to the regulator’s “drill or drop” terms — a mechanism built to stop firms from banking acreage without developing it.

Winning bidders now have 90 days from receipt of their offer letters to clear a checklist: performance guarantees, signature bonus payment, first-year rent and signed contractual documents. Miss the deadline, and the award reverts to the Commission, which can then work down its list of reserve bidders in ranked order.

Eyesan framed the round as delivering on a directive President Bola Tinubu issued eight months ago: widen the pool of investment opportunities and bring Nigeria’s licensing process in line with international norms, with transparency as the watchword.

To back that claim, she noted that the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative monitored the bid evaluation and opening, while the Commission published guidelines, ran a bidders’ portal, and hosted webinars throughout the process.

Bids were scored on a blend of technical merit, a company’s track record, operating capacity and the credibility of its proposed work program, and commercial terms, including signature bonus, work commitments and performance security. Eyesan stressed repeatedly that the highest composite score won each block, not simply the largest check.

The numbers behind the ambition

NUPRC is framing the round as a meaningful, if incremental, step toward its production targets. The regulator estimates the awarded blocks could add roughly 500 million barrels to reserves that currently stand at 37.01 billion barrels of crude and condensate, alongside 215.19 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Over three years, the Commission projects the new acreage could contribute a minimum of 300,000 barrels a day of output, a figure regulators see as a meaningful building block toward the government’s goal of reaching 3 million barrels a day by 2030, a target Nigeria has repeatedly pushed back amid pipeline vandalism, funding gaps and ageing infrastructure.

Eyesan said the government wants both small and large fields developed, hoping to draw a wider mix of operators and encourage more collaboration across the industry. The priority, she said, is “efficient barrels”, production that creates value across the chain rather than volume for its own sake.

She also signalled the government isn’t done. Tinubu has already approved a follow-up bid round for 2026, she said, promising a fresh slate of blocks to be offered next year.