The Federal Government has announced that 13 of the 50 oil and gas blocks offered in the 2025 Licensing Round will be returned to the licensing basket after they failed to attract bids from investors.
The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, disclosed this on Tuesday during the 2025 Commercial Bid Conference in Abuja.
According to Eyesan, although 50 oil and gas blocks were made available under the licensing round, only 37 received bids from prospective investors.
"At the end of the exercise, we had 50 blocks on offer, but we only had representation for 37 of those 50 blocks. Thirteen of those blocks will be returning back to the basket," she said.
Despite the unsold assets, Eyesan described the exercise as a major success, revealing that 143 companies submitted approximately 200 bids for the available blocks.
"We have a total of 143 companies showing interest for 200 bids. That, for us, was remarkable, and I must say thank you," she stated.
She noted that the exercise initially attracted interest from nearly 300 companies, describing the response as evidence of growing investor confidence in Nigeria's upstream petroleum industry.
"When we started the journey, we got interest from almost 300 companies. I repeat, almost 300 companies. That, in my view, was an indication that the tide has turned for Nigeria," Eyesan said.
She explained that the number of interested companies was reduced to 196 after the prequalification stage before advancing to the technical and commercial bid evaluation process, with 143 companies eventually participating in the commercial bidding.
The 2025 Licensing Round was launched on November 11, 2025, in accordance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, offering 50 oil and gas blocks spread across seven sedimentary basins.
The blocks comprise 16 onshore Niger Delta assets, 18 shallow-water blocks, one deep offshore block, three blocks in the Benin Basin, four in the Anambra Basin, four in the Chad Basin and four in the Benue Trough.
The bid portal opened on December 1, 2025, while a pre-bid conference was held in Lagos on January 14, 2026, to guide prospective investors. Registration and prequalification submissions closed on February 27, with the prequalification exercise completed on March 16.
Under the NUPRC's evaluation framework, winning bids are determined through a weighted assessment of signature bonus commitments, proposed work programmes and performance guarantees, combining technical and commercial scores rather than relying solely on financial offers. The framework is designed to ensure that only financially capable and technically competent investors secure petroleum assets to accelerate exploration and production in Nigeria's upstream oil and gas sector.
