220 blocks up for grabs in Nigeria’s bid round to speed up oil & gas development

Given its interest in unlocking oil and gas growth, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has revealed its plans to award 220 oil blocks, spanning the African country’s onshore and offshore basins, in its latest hydrocarbon licensing bid round. This entails 59 offshore blocks located in deep water.

According to the African Energy Council, NUPRC will hand over 220 open oil blocks to concessionaires upon completing periodic bid rounds and fulfilling conditions. The lion’s share of these blocks is said to fall into the deep offshore terrain category, which encompasses 59 unlicensed blocks.

This is followed by the Benue Trough (41 open blocks), the Chad Basin (40), the Sokoto Basin (28 blocks awaiting award), and the Bida Basin (16 blocks). In addition, seven blocks remain open in the offshore Niger Delta. While the Anambra Basin still has 13, the Benin Basin and the onshore Niger Delta each have eight unlicensed blocks.

NUPRC, which intends to transfer these 220 blocks, alongside 59 in offshore deep water, to investors once competitive bid rounds end, plans to accelerate deepwater and offshore projects. To this end, a cluster/nodal development model has been introduced to enable shared infrastructure, joint development strategies, and optimized subsurface frameworks, aiming to drive local content by encouraging the domestication of technology and local manufacturing.

The country’s oil output peaked at 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in July 2025 through the ‘Project One Million Barrels per Day Initiative,’ as the commission works to enhance production efficiency through maximum efficient rate (MER) strategies, including coordinated maintenance and produced water management.

A seven-pillar Upstream Oil & Gas Decarbonisation & Sustainability Framework has been launched on the climate front to reduce emissions and attract climate-aligned investments, backed by enforceable measures such as the gas flaring, venting, and methane emission rules to boost investor confidence and position Nigeria’s upstream sector as a competitive investment destination.

Advancing the development of deep and shallow offshore fields towards valorising stranded and marginally economic offshore assets through cluster development mechanisms is part of the steps being taken to expand and sustain production in alignment with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s quest for industry vitality and sustained production growth.

Gbenga Komolafe, Commission Chief Executive of NUPRC, believes that deep and shallow water clusters present a critical opportunity to increase output and attract long-term investment, emphasizing the need for collaboration to scale up exploration efforts, increase daily production volumes, and ensure the responsible development of the country’s hydrocarbon resources.

Enorense Amadasu, Executive Commissioner for Development and Production, claims that the regulator’s cluster development strategy is created to address key technical, operational, and commercial bottlenecks and infrastructure limitations in offshore development, co-creating “workable solutions and implementable outcomes that would drive offshore development for win-win value proposition.”

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission recently reaffirmed its regulatory vision to advance a sustainable energy future, focusing on enabling a stable, efficient, and forward-looking upstream sector that balances energy security, environmental responsibility, economic sustainability, and climate resilience.

Bearing in mind the global shift toward digitalization and cleaner energy, NUPRC has set its sights on integrating technology across both industry operations and regulatory functions, promoting technological adoption across exploration, development, and production activities, especially for decarbonization and emission reduction endeavors.

While the African country’s shallow and deepwater cluster development strategy is envisioned to unlock marginal and stranded oil and gas resources through joint development models, the Upstream Oil & Gas Decarbonisation and Sustainability Blueprint is expected to future-proof the upstream sector, enhance investment attractiveness, and improve competitiveness.

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