The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has begun the processes for the 2024 oil bid round with 12 oil blocks and five deep offshore assets from last year’s bid.
The chief executive of the commission, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, disclosed this at the debut of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) House Dialogue held in Abuja.
Komolafe said the oil bids will be concluded by January next year, adding that the new green field oil blocks on offer include six acreages located on continental shelf, four deep offshore blocks and two onshore blocks in the Niger Delta.
He listed some of the criteria required for acquiring the blocks to include include technical competence, financial capacity and viability.
He said the commission had put in place regulations to create a conducive investment environment by ensuring regulatory certainty, vacating entry barriers and promoting global competitiveness.
Besides, he said the licencing round will be conducted in a fair and competitive bidding process in a non-discriminating manner.
Komolafe explained that the licensing round was designed to enhance quality data sets and would be conducted in a fair, transparent, and competitive bidding process and in a non-discriminatory manner as stipulated in Sections 73 and 74 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
“It is gratifying that in the last three years, you will see the growth of revenue generation by the commission. The commission has successfully been meeting and surpassing the revenue targets set by it, and that equally speaks to the transparent approach in revenue reporting by the commission,” he said.
He assured all the stakeholders and members of the civil society of the commission’s commitment to sustaining its ongoing efforts in ensuring optimal development of Nigeria’s petroleum resources.
“This would be a good opportunity for us to, as we are planning to commence the 2024 licensing round, that it would be a good opportunity to launch this critical programme before these eminent stakeholders are seated here today.
“The 2024 licensing round as described in the Petroleum Industry Act will commence from the end of this month. The process has commenced and will set very clear criteria that will guide the implementation of the process from beginning to the end in a transparent manner.
“So in totality we target to complete 17 blocks on offer between now and early next year,” he said.
Komolafe also disclosed that the commission generated N4.344 trillion in revenues in 2023, a rise of 15 per cent from N3.78 trillion generated in 2022, N2.9 trillion in 2021 and N2 trillion in 2020.
He further said the commission had it had started its ‘due diligence’ on Renaissance Consortium’s planned acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SDPC) onshore oil assets for $2.4 billion.
Recall that SDPC had last January agreed to the transaction, announcing that when the deal is completed, the oilfields will be operated by the new group, comprising ND Western, Aradel Energy, First E&P, Waltersmith, and Petrolin, a Swiss firm.
Shell said the consummation of the deal was still subject to approval by the federal government.
