The Federal Government has announced that 13 of the 50 oil and gas blocks offered during the 2025 Licensing Round will be returned to the licensing pool after they failed to receive bids from investors.
The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, made the disclosure on Tuesday during the 2025 Commercial Bid Conference in Abuja.
According to Eyesan, although 50 blocks were made available for bidding, only 37 attracted interest from prospective investors.
She revealed that 143 companies participated in the commercial bid process, submitting about 200 bids for the available assets.
Eyesan described the response as encouraging, noting that nearly 300 companies initially expressed interest in the licensing round, a development she said reflects growing investor confidence in Nigeria’s upstream petroleum industry.
She explained that the number of interested firms was reduced to 196 after the prequalification stage before 143 companies advanced to the commercial bidding phase.
The 2025 Licensing Round, announced on November 11, 2025, under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, featured 50 oil and gas blocks spread across seven sedimentary basins.
The blocks include 16 onshore assets in the Niger Delta, 18 shallow water blocks, one deep offshore block, three 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 closed on February 27, with the evaluation process completed on March 16.
The government stated that successful bidders will be selected through a weighted assessment of signature bonus commitments, proposed work programmes, and performance security, rather than financial offers alone.
Officials said the evaluation framework is intended to ensure that oil and gas assets are awarded to investors with the financial capacity, technical expertise, and operational capability to boost exploration and production in Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector.