NUPRC Threatens to Withdraw 37 Provisional Oil Block Awards

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has warned 31 companies that emerged winners of 37 oil and gas blocks in the 2025 Licensing Round to pay their signature bonuses within the stipulated period or risk losing their provisional awards.

The commission issued the warning a month after it hosted the commercial bid conference in Abuja, where the successful companies emerged as winners of the available blocks.

The NUPRC said in a notice that the process of compliance with the payment of signature bonuses had commenced following the issuance of provisional awards to the successful bidders.

“Exactly a month ago, the NUPRC hosted the 2025 commercial bid conference in Abuja where 31 companies emerged winners of 37 oil and gas blocks. Having issued the winners with provisional awards, compliance with the payment of signature bonuses has already begun.

“Winners who fail to pay signature bonuses within the stipulated time frame in line with the Petroleum Industry Act will forfeit their bid guarantee and lose their provisional awards to the reserve bidders,” the NUPRC stated.

The 37 blocks offered in the licensing round comprise Petroleum Prospecting Licences covering the Niger Delta onshore, shallow water and deep offshore areas, as well as frontier basins.

Among the blocks are PPL 2A29 to PPL 2A62 in the Niger Delta, PPL 2010 in the deep offshore, PPL 308 in the Benin Basin, PPL 900 to PPL 903 in the Anambra Basin, PPL 700 in the Chad Basin and PPL 800 and PPL 801 in the Benue Trough.

The commission also published the names of the 31 successful companies and the ranked reserve bidders for each of the 37 blocks.

A total of 143 companies participated in the licensing round, submitting about 200 bids for the 37 blocks. However, 13 of the 50 blocks initially put up for bidding attracted no bids.

Under the Petroleum Industry Act and the applicable licensing guidelines, successful bidders are required to pay signature bonuses ranging from $3 million to $7 million per block.

They are also expected to provide the required guarantees, pay first-year rents and satisfy other post-award conditions within the prescribed period. Failure to meet the requirements will result in the automatic transfer of the affected award to the next-ranked reserve bidder, according to the regulator.