NUPRC Tasks New Prospecting Licence Holders to Add 250kbpd in Fresh Oil Production

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has promised to support newly awarded holders of Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs), emanating from the 2022/2023 and 2024 Licensing Rounds.

With this renewed support, the NUPRC also expects the 22 awardees to contribute at least 250,000 barrels of oil per day to the national production volume.

The chief executive of the NUPRC, Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said this in Lagos at a two-day onboarding workshop for the new awardees themed From Award to Production: Delivering Nigeria’s Upstream Potential Under the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021.

Mrs Eyesan said the commission decided to organise the onboarding programme in order to guide new awardees.

“For this set of awardees, we are expecting nothing less than 250,000 barrels per day in the next five years at least from the 22 awards,” Mrs Eyesan said, adding that Nigeria remains on course to hit 3 million barrels per day by 2030.

Mrs Eyesan advised the new awardees to learn from the successes and mistakes of past winners.

She restated the October 31, 2026 deadline for the revocation of idle oil and gas Licences in line with the drill or drop provision enshrined in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

“We have issued a directive that by the end of this month, those who were awarded licences and have not done anything within the stipulated time – three years for those onshore and five years for those offshore – the Commission will call in those blocks.

“It’s going to be drill or drop. This is standard practice all over the world. In the UK, in the Netherlands, all over the world,” Mrs Eyesan added.

The NUPRC chief therefore noted that such extensions would no longer be granted automatically.

“We want to see that in the next two years, more than half of you have reached the first oil. In the next three to four years, you are drilling your second well,” she said.