The Federal Government of Nigeria has returned 13 oil and gas blocks from the 2025 licensing round back into the auction pool for the upcoming 2026 bid round after they received no bids from prospective investors.

Speaking at the Commercial Bid Conference for the 2025 Licensing Round held in Abuja, the Commission Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, disclosed that while 50 oil blocks were originally offered, representations and formal bids were received for only 37 assets.

Overall, the licensing exercise attracted interest from approximately 300 companies, with 196 firms prequalifying for the bidding stage and 143 companies ultimately submitting 200 technical and commercial bids covering the 37 assets.

Eyesan explained that the assets under consideration in the 2025 licensing round hold the potential to add roughly 500 million barrels to Nigeria’s crude oil and condensate reserves, which currently stand at 37.01 billion barrels, alongside 215.19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. Once fully operational and developed, the assets are projected to deliver an additional 300,000 barrels per day in crude oil and condensate production over the next three years, supporting the federal target to elevate national production to three million barrels per day by 2030.

The NUPRC chief emphasized that President Bola Tinubu approved the forthcoming 2026 licensing round to maintain a predictable, periodic schedule for upstream investments, replace reserves, and sustain exploration. Under the current framework, winning bidders will be selected based on a weighted aggregate of technical and commercial metrics rather than signature bonus size alone, and successful applicants will have 90 days to meet post-award conditions—such as paying signature bonuses, settling first-year rentals, and providing required performance guarantees—or forfeit their allocations to reserve bidders.