Nigeria launches 2025 oil and gas licensing round, aims for $10bn investment

In a major move to attract investment and boost production, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has officially launched the Nigeria 2025 Licensing Round.

The Commission’s Chief Executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, unveiled a dedicated online portal for the process at a press conference in Abuja.

With presidential approval, the NUPRC is offering 50 oil and gas blocks for bidding.

The portfolio includes 15 onshore blocks, 19 shallow water blocks, 15 frontier basin assets, and 1 deepwater block.

The round’s key objectives are to significantly increase Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves, raise daily production, expand gas utilisation, create jobs, and enhance transparency in line with global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) standards.

To de-risk exploration and attract investors, the Commission has conducted extensive seismic data reprocessing. Furthermore, signature bonuses have been reduced with presidential approval to lower entry costs.

The NUPRC projects that the 2025 round will attract approximately $10 billion in investments.

It is expected to add up to 2 billion barrels to national reserves over the next decade and boost production by an estimated 400,000 barrels per day once the blocks are fully developed.

Emphasizing a transparent and digital process, the Commission has adopted a two-stage bidding system.

The first stage assesses the technical and financial qualifications of applicants, while the second involves the submission of commercial bids.

The process is designed to be fully automated, with winners determined at the commercial bid stage.

All relevant guidelines, asset details, schedules, and maps for the licensing round are now available on the official portal: br2025.nuprc.gov.ng.

About The Author

Dele Fashomi

Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.

Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.

He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.

Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).

He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.

He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.

Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled:  Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.

See author's posts