Nigeria to open bidding portal for 40 oil and gas blocks on November 20

Nigeria plans to open its bidding portal for the 2026 oil and gas licensing round on November 20, offering 40 blocks across onshore, shallow-water and deepwater areas as the government seeks fresh investment in upstream exploration and development.

Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), announced the date at the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi on November 2, according to a regulatory statement.

“We are going in for another licensing round and we will be launching our bid portal on November 20,” Eyesan said.

The regulator formally launched the licensing round on October 6 following approval by President Bola Tinubu, and it is open to Nigerian and international companies with the technical and financial capacity to develop petroleum resources. The November 20 date marks the planned opening of the bidding portal rather than the launch of the round itself. The NUPRC has not announced a detailed timetable for bid submissions, evaluation or awards.

The regulator has said the round’s guidelines will publish evaluation criteria, provide for disclosure of results and require bidders to identify their beneficial owners, in line with recommendations from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). A NEITI review of the 2022–2023 mini bid round and the 2024 licensing round, published in May 2025, called for stronger evaluation methodology, better publication of results and full disclosure of beneficial ownership.

The new exercise is the NUPRC’s latest in a series of at least four licensing rounds since 2021, Eyesan said. The 2025 round offered 50 blocks and attracted about 200 bids from 143 companies. Bids were received for 37 blocks, with 31 companies emerging as preferred bidders at a commercial bid conference on July 21, 2026, while 13 blocks drew no bids. The regulator has not said whether any of those 13 blocks are included in the new round.

Final licence awards from the 2025 round remain subject to payment of signature bonuses and ministerial approval under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021.

Abiodun Afolabi, executive director of TotalEnergies Nigeria, described the July conference as “a very transparent and open process” and “a step-up from last year”. The Centre for Energy Policy, Research and Strategic Development warned in August that successful bidders still needed to demonstrate their capacity to finance exploration and development.

At ADIPEC, Eyesan said reforms introduced under the PIA and subsequent presidential executive orders had improved fiscal terms and the investment climate, and that Nigeria had taken steps to reduce execution risks, costs, delays and uncertainty for investors.

Eyesan also highlighted Nigeria’s estimated 215 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves against production of about 7bn cubic feet per day, identifying gas infrastructure as another investment opportunity. She cited the proposed Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic Gas Pipeline and Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline as potential routes for expanding regional supplies and exports to Europe.

See IntelliNews: Nigeria offers 40 oil and gas blocks in new licensing round to boost production
See IntelliNews: Nigeria returns 13 oil blocks to licensing pool after failed bids