NUPRC opens bidding for 40 oil and gas blocks on November 20
- The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission will open its 2026 licensing round portal on November 20.
- Its chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, urged foreign investors to pick Nigeria at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
- She said improved security, new fiscal terms and the 2021 Petroleum Industry Act make the country more competitive.
Bidding for 40 oil and gas blocks will open on November 20, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said on Monday, as it urged foreign investors to put money into Nigeria's upstream sector.
The commission's chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, announced the date at a roundtable at the 2026 ADIPEC Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi, according to statements issued by the commission.
Eyesan said the country's investment climate had improved through better security, attractive fiscal terms and incentives meant to cut operating costs.
"We are going in for another licensing round and we will be launching our bid portal on November 20," she said.
She said the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), signed in 2021, and executive orders by President Bola Tinubu had helped. The NUPRC has held at least four licensing rounds between 2021 and 2026, she said, more often than before the PIA.
Why it matters to Nigerians
Fresh investment in oil and gas is tied to what Nigerians feel at the pump and in government revenue. More crude output means more oil earnings for a country that leans on petroleum for foreign exchange, and more gas could feed power plants and factories.
Eyesan said Nigeria has about 215 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves but produces barely seven billion cubic feet a day. That gap, she said, is an opening for investors.
She pointed to recently completed gas projects and two planned pipelines, the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic Gas Pipeline and the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline, as ways to move gas to the region and to Europe.
She also acknowledged that competition for oil money has grown, with more countries finding petroleum and chasing the same investors. Nigeria, she said, is working to reduce the risks investors worry about, such as project delays, costs and shifting policy.
"We understand that investors will prize execution risk, cost, delays and also uncertainty," she said.
Punch reported that Nigeria has long struggled to attract enough oil investment because of regulatory uncertainty, insecurity, crude theft, pipeline vandalism, high costs and slow project approvals. The commission says its reforms are meant to fix that.
What happens next
The bid portal opens on November 20, 2026. The commission has not said how long bidding will run or when winners will be named. For ordinary Nigerians, the test will be whether the round brings in money that lifts production, gas supply and government revenue.