The Federal Government has opened the 2026 oil licensing round, offering 40 oil blocks across land, shallow water and deepwater terrains as it seeks to attract fresh investment into Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) announced the licensing round on Tuesday through its Chief Executive Officer, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, during the commission’s fifth anniversary celebration in Abuja.
Eyesan said the exercise had received the approval of President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Petroleum Resources. She added that the available blocks would be open to investors with the technical expertise, financial capacity and commitment required to develop Nigeria’s petroleum resources.
The commission is also introducing measures aimed at making the bidding process more transparent. Under the new guidelines, bidders will be required to disclose their beneficial owners, while the evaluation methodology and results of the exercise will be published in greater detail.
According to Eyesan, the changes are intended to strengthen confidence in the process at a time when competition for investment in the global upstream oil industry is increasing. She said investors are more likely to commit capital where regulations are clear, processes are predictable and reliable data is available.
The 2026 licensing round follows the conclusion of the 2025 exercise, which attracted 200 bids from 143 companies. Thirty-one companies emerged as winners of 37 blocks during that round.
The NUPRC said the latest exercise will continue efforts to broaden exploration and investment beyond Nigeria’s traditional oil-producing areas, with frontier basins such as the Anambra Basin, Benue Trough, Chad Basin and Benin Basin having attracted investor interest in recent licensing activities.
The commission’s latest announcement comes as the Federal Government continues to pursue increased investment and production in the upstream sector. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, said Nigeria’s crude oil and condensate production had risen to 1.82 million barrels per day, while the NUPRC reported that 120 Field Development Plans had been approved since 2024, representing about $47.6 billion in capital commitments.
The NUPRC is expected to provide further details on the blocks, qualification requirements and participation procedures through its licensing platforms as the bidding process progresses.
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