The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has called on local and international investors to seize opportunities in Nigeria’s 2026 oil and gas licensing round, citing improvements in the country’s investment environment and growing prospects in the global energy market.
The Commission Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, made the appeal on Monday at a roundtable session titled ‘Energy Sovereignty in an Interconnected World: Aligning National Priorities, Markets and Global Security’, held during the 2026 ADIPEC Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi.
She disclosed that the portal for the licensing exercise would officially open on November 20, 2026, providing investors access to 40 available oil and gas blocks.
Addressing participants at the event, Ms Eyesan described Nigeria as an increasingly attractive destination for petroleum investments, urging prospective bidders to take advantage of the opportunities available under the new licensing programme.
“We are expecting investors to turn to Nigeria. We are going into another licensing round, and we will launch our bid portal on November 20. We expect to see interested investors because the environment is a lot more competitive,” she said.
“We have set a very attractive fiscal framework for investors. The overall environment is much more secure. We have been able to manage costs with a lot of incentives for investors, and we expect to see investors take up the offer when we open the portal.”
She attributed the improved investment outlook to reforms introduced under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), enacted in 2021, alongside executive orders issued by President Bola Tinubu to strengthen the country’s petroleum industry.
According to the NUPRC chief executive, Nigeria has successfully organised at least four licensing rounds between 2021 and 2026, creating additional opportunities for investment. She noted that the development marked a significant shift from the period before the PIA, when licensing exercises were conducted less regularly.
Ms Eyesan also drew attention to Nigeria’s vast natural gas resources, putting the country’s estimated reserves at 215 trillion cubic feet (TCF), while daily production remains below seven billion cubic feet (bcf). She said the disparity between the country’s enormous reserves and its current production levels offered substantial opportunities for investors, particularly as major infrastructure developments advance.
“The stars are already aligned. For gas infrastructure, we just completed very major infrastructure projects that will unlock gas supply in the country and the sub-region.
“We talk about two major projects on the drawing board to move gas through the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic Gas Pipeline and Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline. Again, this gas will go to Europe and will also meet regional demand. So, Nigeria is positioned to meet not just domestic supply,” the NUPRC chief executive said.
She further observed that competition among countries seeking investments in the global oil and gas industry had become more intense, particularly as new hydrocarbon discoveries continued to expand the number of potential investment destinations.
Ms Eyesan said Nigeria was responding to the changing investment landscape through regulatory reforms and fiscal adjustments designed to improve its competitiveness and attract investors capable of developing its extensive petroleum resources.
“We understand that investors will prize execution risk, cost, delays and also uncertainty, and so what we have done in Nigeria is to ensure that we guard against these risks and then attract the investment required to enable us to unlock the huge resources we sit on,” she said.
The NUPRC had earlier announced the 2026 oil and gas licensing round on October 7, offering 40 blocks to prospective investors. The latest exercise comes less than three months after the commission completed the bidding process for its 2025 licensing programme.
In the 2025 exercise, 31 companies emerged successful bidders for 37 oil and gas blocks following the commercial bid conference held in Abuja in July, PREMIUM TIMES reported.
The bidding exercise, which took place at the Transcorp Event Centre, attracted 143 participating companies that collectively submitted approximately 200 bids for 37 of the 50 blocks made available by the commission.
The assets cover different geological terrains, including onshore and shallow-water locations in the Niger Delta, deep-offshore areas, as well as the Benin, Anambra and Chad basins and the Benue Trough. Although 37 blocks attracted competing offers, the remaining 13 failed to receive bids.
The commission described the outcome as a major development for Nigeria’s exploration sector, particularly because frontier basins such as the Benue Trough, Chad Basin, Anambra Basin and Benin Basin recorded significant investor interest for the first time.
Beyond attracting new investment through licensing activities, the NUPRC has also outlined measures to increase national crude oil output. These include efforts to restore more than 788,000 barrels per day of shut-in production and facilitate the advancement of offshore developments estimated to be worth between $30 billion and $50 billion towards final investment decisions.
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