The 31 companies awarded 37 oil and gas blocks in the 2025 licensing round yesterday got the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC)’s nod to pay the signature bonuses as part of the post-award process in the next 60 days.

The winners also have the next 60 days to provide guarantees and complete post-award requirements or risk forfeiting their licences to the reserved bidders.

This was contained in a notice posted on its X handle.

NUPRC said: “Exactly a month ago the commission held the 2025 commercial bid conference in Abuja, where 31 companies emerged as provisional winners of 37 blocks.

Having issued the winners with the provisional awards, compliance with the payment of signature bonuses has already begun.”

The commission warned that winners who fail to meet the post-award conditions within the Petroleum Industry Act–mandated timeframe will forfeit their bid guarantees and lose their provisional awards to the reserve bidders.

The NUPRC had stipulated a 90-day window for the winners to pay their signature bonuses, meet other post-award conditions and complete the necessary documentation, failing which they risk forfeiting their bid guarantees and provisional awards.

With 30 days already gone, the awardees now have 60 days to meet the requirements.

At the commercial bid conference in Abuja on July 21, the commission chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, had told winners that emerging successful did not automatically translate to the grant of a licence.

She said winners must provide the required guarantees, pay the signature bonus and first-year rent, and execute all contractual documents before a Petroleum Prospecting Licence (PPL) is formally issued.

Eyesan said the process was being conducted in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, and gave winners a 90-day window from the date of their offer letters to meet these conditions.

“If you have been told anything contrary to the fact that this process was going to be credible and transparent, do not believe it,” she said.

She said the commission would apply the drill-or-drop provision against firms that failed to develop their assets after licensing, while adding that the commission would support credible operators facing genuine operational challenges.

Also, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, said at the same conference that the PIA had ended discretionary allocation of oil blocks in Nigeria.

“The PIA, unfortunately for some people, has prevented discretionary allocation of oil blocks,” Lokpobiri said, adding that no government official had prior knowledge of the commercial bids before they were officially opened.

He said licences should translate into field development rather than remain speculative assets.

“In the past, I have seen people go round conferences across the world carrying licences and looking for partners who never came. Those days must be over. The licences issued today must translate into actual field development and production,” Lokpobiri said.

Under the terms set by NUPRC, a winner that fails to pay its signature bonus and meet other post-award conditions within the 90-day period will forfeit its bid guarantee. The affected block will then be offered to the reserve bidder ranked immediately behind the winner in the evaluation process.

Most of the 37 blocks had multiple reserve bidders. PPL 2A29, PPL 2A32, PPL 2A50 and PPL 2A51 each had four reserve bidders listed behind the winner.

Winning companies include SSonic Petroleum Limited, Asharami Deepwater Resource Limited, Gupsco Energy Limited, Blackrock Energy Holdings Limited, Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited and Concept-Real Petroleum Services Limited, which was awarded two blocks — PPL 2A47 and PPL 2A55.

The round also covered Nigeria’s frontier basins. Dakoda and U Limited was awarded blocks in the Benin Basin (PPL 308) and the Benue Trough (PPL 800). Nikstalis Nigeria Limited, Attabason Global Company Nigeria Limited, Southborne Oil and Gas Limited and Lanaka Petroleum Limited were awarded onshore blocks in the Anambra Basin.

NNPC E&P Limited did not emerge as a winning bidder in the round. It is listed as a reserve bidder for PPL 2A32 in the Niger Delta onshore terrain.

NUPRC has said the 37 awarded blocks are expected to add about 500 million barrels to Nigeria’s crude oil reserves and increase output by at least 300,000 barrels per day within three years, as part of the federal government’s target of three million barrels per day by 2030. (The Nation)

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