The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said it has completed the pre-qualification stage of the 2025 licensing round.
Eniola Akinkuotu, the regulator’s head, media and strategic communication, in a statement on Tuesday, said successful pre-qualified applicants have been notified accordingly.
This, he said, was done on 16 March in line with the 2025 licensing round guidelines.
A licensing round is a process by which the government grants oil and gas exploration and production rights to companies through a competitive bidding process.
Last December, the NUPRC opened bidding for 50 oil and gas blocks, aiming to attract $10 billion in investment.
Of these 50 blocks, the commission said 15 are onshore assets, 19 are shallow water assets, 15 are frontier assets, and one is a deep water asset.
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At the time, the commission said the bidding would add 2 billion barrels of oil output over the next decade, with an estimated 400,000 barrels per day of production volumes when the blocks are fully operational.
The commission also stated that the 2025 block licensing round would last for approximately six months, noting that it has adopted a two-stage bidding process for the award of the blocks, comprising a qualification stage and a bid stage.
In February, the commission announced the deadline for the registration and submission of applications for the pre-qualification stage. At the time, the NUPRC said it would close on Friday, 27 February, 2026.
On Tuesday, Mr Akinkuotu said with the pre-qualification stage now successfully completed, the commission will from 17 March 2026, permit successful applicants to lease data in preparation for the technical and commercial bid submissions.
He noted that the pre-qualified applicants are mandated to lease data only from the two data sources (as applicable) and upload evidence of payment as a pre-requisite to the submission of bids.
