NUPRC Calls on Investors for 2026 Oil Licensing Round

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) is encouraging investors to look into Nigeria’s 2026 oil and gas licensing round. They say the country’s investment climate is getting better, even as uncertainties grow in the global energy market.

The Commission Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, shared this message on Monday. She spoke during a roundtable discussion called ‘Energy Sovereignty in an Interconnected World: Aligning National Priorities, Markets and Global Security’ at the 2026 ADIPEC Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi.

Ms Eyesan told investors that Nigeria has a stable investment environment. She also announced that the licensing round portal will open on 20 November 2026.

She urged potential investors to take a look at the opportunities in the 2026 Licensing Round, which includes 40 oil and gas blocks. “We are expecting investors to turn to Nigeria. We are going into another licensing round, and we will launch our bid portal on November 20. We expect to see interested investors because the environment is a lot more competitive,” she said.

She added, “We have set a very attractive fiscal framework for investors. The overall environment is much more secure. We have been able to manage costs with a lot of incentives for investors, and we expect to see investors take up the offer when we open the portal.”

Ms Eyesan mentioned that Nigeria’s investment climate improved after the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) was enacted in 2021. She also noted the executive orders signed by President Bola Tinubu.

According to her, from 2021 to 2026, the commission has held at least four successful licensing rounds, which brought more investments into the country.

“This is a shift from the pre-PIA era, when licensing rounds were less frequent,” she said. Ms Eyesan also pointed out Nigeria’s huge gas potential. The country has about 215 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas reserves but only produces around seven billion cubic feet (bcf) daily.

She explained that the gap between reserves and current production creates big chances for investors. This is especially true with major gas infrastructure projects coming up. “The stars are already aligned. For gas infrastructure, we just completed very major infrastructure projects that will unlock gas supply in the country and the sub-region.

“We talk about two major projects on the drawing board to move gas through the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic Gas Pipeline and the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline. Again, this gas will go to Europe and will also meet regional demand. So, Nigeria is positioned to meet not just domestic supply,” the NUPRC chief executive said.

Ms Eyesan said that competition for investment in the global oil sector is getting tougher as other countries find oil and gas resources. She added that Nigeria is making moves to get ahead. “We understand that investors will prize execution risk, cost, delays and also uncertainty, and so what we have done in Nigeria is to ensure that we guard against these risks and then attract the investment required to enable us to unlock the huge resources we sit on,” she said.

2026 Licensing Round

On 7 October, the NUPRC announced the 2026 Licensing Round. They are offering 40 oil and gas blocks to investors. This announcement came less than three months after the bidding program for the 2025 licensing round ended.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that 31 companies won bids for 37 oil and gas blocks in the 2025 Licensing Round after the commercial bid conference in Abuja in July. The bidding process took place at the Transcorp Event Centre and attracted 143 companies, which submitted around 200 bids for 37 of the 50 oil and gas blocks offered.

The blocks cover different areas, including the Niger Delta onshore, shallow-water and deep-offshore regions, as well as the Benin, Anambra and Chad basins and the Benue Trough. Out of the 50 blocks, 37 attracted bids, but 13 did not receive any offers.

The NUPRC called the results significant, saying it is the first time Nigeria’s frontier basins, like the Benue Trough, Chad Basin, Anambra Basin and Benin Basin, have drawn such strong investor interest.

After the 2025 licensing round, the commission also laid out plans to boost crude oil production. They aim to restore more than 788,000 barrels per day of shut-in production. They are also advancing offshore projects worth around $30 billion to $50 billion towards final investment decisions.