The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has issued a final call to prequalified companies, directing them to submit their technical and commercial bids for the 2025 licensing round no later than Friday, June 12, 2026 at 4:30pm West Africa Time.

The commission announced the deadline via its official X account, stating that it is in line with the 2025 Licensing Round Guidelines. The instruction marks the culmination of a multi-stage process that began with the formal launch of the licensing round several months ago and has since progressed through pre-qualification, data acquisition, and technical assessment phases.

The 2025 oil licensing round was formally launched in December 2025 following approval by President Bola Tinubu as part of efforts to attract fresh investment into the country’s upstream petroleum sector. The bid round offers 50 oil and gas blocks located across several sedimentary basins, including the Niger Delta, Anambra, Bida, Benue Trough, and Chad basins, with the objective of boosting exploration activity, increasing reserves, and supporting long-term crude production growth.

The portfolio includes 15 onshore blocks, 19 shallow-water blocks, 15 frontier blocks and one deep-water block, with the round targeting approximately $10 billion in new investment. The NUPRC projects the round could unlock around two billion barrels of oil over the next decade and potentially add about 400,000 barrels per day when fully developed.

The pre-qualification stage was completed on March 16, 2026, after which successful applicants were formally notified and directed to proceed to the bidding phase. Only firms that scaled that initial screening are eligible to submit bids ahead of Thursday’s cutoff.

NUPRC Chief Executive Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan had earlier outlined the framework at the 2025 licensing round pre-bid webinar, noting that the process follows five steps registration and pre-qualification, data acquisition, technical bid submission, evaluation, and a commercial bid conference and that only candidates with strong technical and financial credentials would advance, with winners chosen through a transparent, merit-based procedure.

The commission also imposed strict participation rules, limiting each bidder to a maximum of two oil and gas blocks, shifting focus away from speculative acquisitions toward operators with proven technical depth and financial strength. Under the guidelines, priority is given to bidders that can clearly demonstrate the technical competence to operate the assets and the financial capacity to fund exploration and development activities through to first oil or gas.

The June 12 deadline represents a pivotal moment in the exercise, with the evaluation of submitted bids and subsequent commercial bid conference expected to follow before final awards are announced its upstream sector as a competitive and transparent destination for global energy investment.