Nigeria’s two petroleum regulators have announced upcoming licensing rounds within days of each other, together covering the full length of the country’s oil and gas sector.
The Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) formally opened its 2026 licensing round on October 6, offering 40 oil and gas blocks across onshore, shallow-water and deepwater terrain to local and international bidders. New rules require fuller publication of results and disclosure of bidders’ beneficial owners, following advice from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. The regulator is targeting the restoration of more than 788,000 bopd of shut-in production across 63 operators, final investment decisions on USD 30-50 billion of offshore projects, and full delivery against Nigeria’s domestic gas supply obligation, currently met at around two-thirds. Full block details are expected in the coming days.
Days earlier, the Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said it would launch a separate digital licensing round for gas distribution licences before the end of the year, once a nationwide gas-grid mapping exercise is complete. Modelled on how upstream blocks are awarded, the round will let companies bid for distribution rights in specific “gridded” areas, part of a push towards an open-access gas market where infrastructure can be shared across operators rather than built out individually.
Together, the two rounds reflect a coordinated push under the Petroleum Industry Act: NUPRC opening new upstream acreage to lift production, while NMDPRA works to fix the distribution problems that have kept domestic gas delivery below its target.
source: theenergyyear.com