On November 11, 2025, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (“NUPRC” or the “Commission”) announced that Nigeria’s Oil Licensing Round will commence on December 1, 2025. The announcement was made by the Commission’s Chief Executive, Engineer Gbenga Komolafe at the 1MMBOPD Additional Production Investment Forum in London. This licensing round focuses on discovered but undeveloped fields, fallow assets, and natural gas development. Its primary objective is to fast-track upstream production from unexploited reserves, while simultaneously stimulating the midstream capacity required for evacuation, storage, and early production handling, in support of the government’s target of adding an additional One Million Barrels of Oil Per Day (1MMBOPD) to national production capacity.

In this newsletter, we highlight the policy and regulatory framework governing the licensing rounds, the eligibility requirements for participation, and key timelines in the bidding process.

POLICY AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

This exercise is governed by the Petroleum Industry Act (“PIA”) 2021 and the Petroleum Licensing Round Regulations 2022 (the “Regulation”). The PIA sets out the core legal framework for the award of Petroleum Prospecting Licences (“PPLs”) and Petroleum Mining Leases (“PMLs”), mandating that all licensing rounds be conducted through a transparent and competitive bidding process. To operationalize the PIA, the Regulation prescribes in detail, procedures for conducting licensing rounds and expressly requires PPLs and PMLs be awarded only through a fair, transparent, and competitive bidding process in line with the PIA and applicable guidelines issued for each round.

In line with the Regulation, each licensing round must begin with a formal public announcement to guarantee openness and equal access to information. Pursuant to this requirement, the Commission has issued a press statement and published the commencement date as December 1, 2025, as stated above. Following this, and in subsequent weeks the Commission is expected to publish additional information regarding the bid timelines and schedules on its official website. Alongside these announcements, the Commission must release the Licensing Round Guidelines, which will serve as the primary compliance document for interested bidders. Thereafter, the Commission is required to open the data room, an online repository containing geological, geophysical, and fiscal data relating to available blocks to enable participants conduct informed commercial and technical evaluations. Access to the data room is contingent upon the execution of a confidentiality agreement, reinforcing the integrity of proprietary data shared during the process.