The Federal Government has opened the 2026 Nigerian Oil Licensing Round, with 40 oil blocks across land, shallow-water and deepwater terrains available to qualified investors.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said the exercise is part of ongoing efforts to attract new capital into Nigeria’s upstream petroleum industry and boost exploration and production.

The Commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, announced the licensing round in Abuja on Tuesday during activities marking the fifth anniversary of the NUPRC.

According to Eyesan, the exercise received the approval of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister of Petroleum Resources.

She said participation would be open to investors with the required technical expertise, financial strength and commitment to developing the country’s petroleum resources.

“The Nigeria 2026 Licensing Round is hereby announced. This round offers 40 blocks across land, shallow water and deepwater terrains. They are open to investors with the technical competence, financial capability and, above all, the commitment to develop Nigeria’s petroleum resources,” Eyesan said.

The NUPRC chief said the new licensing round would be guided by greater transparency, predictability and equal opportunities for all participants.

She disclosed that the bidding guidelines would contain details of the evaluation process, while the results would be published more comprehensively. The guidelines would also require bidders to disclose their beneficial owners.

Eyesan said the measures followed recommendations made by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) after its review of previous licensing exercises.

She said NEITI had found the 2022 to 2024 licensing processes generally professional, transparent and inclusive, but identified areas requiring improvement, including evaluation methods, disclosure of results, access to bidding information and beneficial ownership transparency.

“We will implement those recommendations in the 2026 round. The guidelines will also set out our evaluation methodology in full, provide for fuller publication of results and require disclosure of beneficial owners of every bidder,” she said.

The announcement followed the conclusion of the 2025 licensing round, in which 143 companies submitted 200 bids, with 31 successful companies emerging with 37 blocks.

Eyesan said the previous exercise also showed growing investor interest in frontier basins outside the traditional Niger Delta oil-producing region, including the Anambra Basin, Benue Trough, Chad Basin and Benin Basin.

She noted that since the Petroleum Industry Act came into effect in 2021, the commission had conducted three licensing exercises — the 2022 Deep Offshore Mini Bid Round, the 2024 Nigerian Licensing Round and the 2025 Nigerian Licensing Round — leading to the award of 57 Petroleum Prospecting Licences.

The NUPRC boss assured prospective investors that the 2026 licensing timetable would be published from the outset and strictly followed.

She said certainty around the bidding schedule was necessary to enable companies to obtain board approvals, mobilise funds and prepare their bids.

“Investors must plan. Boards must approve. Funds must be mobilised. Every one of these decisions depends on dates that hold. We will certainly hold,” Eyesan said.

To improve communication with bidders, the commission said it would use its licensing website and portal, virtual data room, webinars and a dedicated help desk.

It also promised to circulate all material clarifications to every participant to prevent any bidder from gaining an unfair advantage.

The commission said the 2026 licensing exercise would also contribute to efforts to increase Nigeria’s crude oil and condensate output while expanding the country’s gas reserves.

Eyesan said acreage awarded in previous rounds, if successfully developed, could deliver an estimated 500 million barrels of additional reserves and at least 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil and condensate production within five years.

She said the expected output would support Nigeria’s ambition of reaching three million barrels per day by 2030.

The assets could also add about 20 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves and 50 million standard cubic feet of daily gas production, supporting the Federal Government’s Decade of Gas initiative.

However, Eyesan warned successful bidders that securing an oil block would come with a responsibility to develop it.

“To those who will win, my message remains the same: Drill or Drop. A licence is a commitment to Nigeria, not a trophy on the wall,” she said.

The NUPRC said details of the available blocks, eligibility requirements and application procedures would be released through its official website and dedicated licensing portal.

Eyesan urged local and international investors to participate, saying the commission was determined to make Nigeria a competitive and reliable destination for upstream petroleum investment.

She added that the guidelines would establish clear eligibility requirements, bidding parameters, evaluation criteria and conditions of award, which would be applied uniformly to ensure a level playing field for all qualified investors.