By Otamere Okhumwun
FG Returns 13 Oil Blocks After Failed Bids
The Federal Government has announced that 13 oil and gas blocks offered during the 2025 Licensing Round will be returned to the national licensing pool after failing to attract investor bids.
The announcement was made on Tuesday in Abuja during the 2025 Commercial Bid Conference.
Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, disclosed the outcome of the licensing exercise.
She said the government offered 50 oil and gas blocks across Nigeria’s sedimentary basins.
According to Eyesan, investor bids were received for only 37 blocks.
She explained that the remaining 13 unbid blocks would be returned to the national licensing basket.
Despite the unsold assets, Eyesan described the overall outcome of the licensing round as encouraging.
She revealed that 143 companies eventually participated in the commercial bidding process.
The participating firms submitted about 200 bids for the available oil and gas assets.
Eyesan said the licensing round initially attracted expressions of interest from nearly 300 companies.
Following the prequalification exercise, the number of interested firms was reduced to 196 companies.
Those companies later advanced to the technical and commercial evaluation stages.
The 2025 Licensing Round was announced in November 2025 under the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
The programme offered oil and gas assets across seven sedimentary basins in Nigeria.
The available assets included onshore, shallow water, deep offshore and inland basin oil blocks.
The application portal opened in December 2025, while the pre-bid conference was held in Lagos in January 2026.
Registration, prequalification and evaluation were completed before the commercial bid conference.
Under the licensing framework, successful bidders are selected based on signature bonus commitments, technical competence, financial capacity, proposed work programmes and performance guarantees to support oil and gas exploration and production.
