Nigeria to hold 2025 bid round focused on undeveloped blocks

Nigeria will hold a fresh oil licensing round in 2025 focused primarily on handing out blocks that remained undeveloped, its upstream regulator said Dec. 19, as the country battles to raise crude reserves and production.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission also announced winners for the 2024 bid round on Dec. 18, with French oil giant TotalEnergies -- the only energy major to participate -- awarded a deepwater oil block.

At a news conference in Lagos, Gbenga Komolafe, head of the NUPRC, said the commission had begun recovering oil blocks left undeveloped by their license holders. These blocks will form the bulk of the licenses auctioned in 2025.

"Building on the lessons learned from this year's round, the 2025 exercise will focus on discovered and undeveloped fields, fallow assets, and prioritize natural gas development to support Nigeria's commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals," Komolafe said.

He added that the NUPRC would stage oil licensing rounds annually from now on in an effort to boost and optimize the country's oil and gas resources.

After a string of delays, the NUPRC in May launched its 2024 bid round, offering 12 marginal field blocks and seven deep offshore licenses, receiving successful bids from 16 companies.

In addition to TotalEnergies, the winners included MRS Oil & Gas, First E&P Development, Sahara Deepwater Resources Ltd., Sifax and RoyalGate consortium, OceanGate Engineering Oil and Gas Ltd., Hakilat Oil & Gas Consortium Ltd and Petroli Energy Marketing and Supply Ltd, the NUPRC said.

Nigeria is seeking to increase its oil reserves to 40 billion barrels and production to 3 million b/d by the turn of the decade, according to officials, but analysts say that is optimistic.

The previous bid round in 2022 saw Nigeria hand out marginal field licenses to mainly indigenous companies, hinting at the retreat of international oil companies from mature basins that has accelerated in 2024. Eni, Equinor, Shell, TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil have all agreed to sell onshore and shallow water assets to local players and are focusing instead on the deepwater.

Nigeria's oil output has been on a downward trend and below its capacity of 2.2 million since early 2020. The country's crude oil and condensate production averaged 1.69 million b/d in November, according to NUPRC data.