By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 3 (Radarr Africa) – The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) will open its bid portal for the 2026 Licensing Round on November 20, offering 40 oil and gas blocks to investors, BusinessDay reported on Tuesday.
The commission’s chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, made the announcement on Monday at a roundtable during the 2026 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), according to the newspaper. The session was titled “Energy Sovereignty in an Interconnected World: Aligning National Priorities, Markets and Global Security.”
Eyesan told the audience that Nigeria was going ahead with another licensing round and that the portal would be launched on the date given. Eyesan said the commission had put in place “a very attractive fiscal framework”, and BusinessDay reported that Eyesan went on to mention security and cost-management incentives as part of the offer.
Eyesan credited the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021 and executive orders signed by President Bola Tinubu with improving the investment climate, the report said. Between 2021 and 2026, the NUPRC held at least four successful licensing rounds, BusinessDay reported. Eyesan contrasted that record with the period before the Act, when rounds were infrequent.
The round is not limited to oil. BusinessDay said Eyesan pointed investors to gas, noting that Nigeria has about 215 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves while daily production is barely 7 billion cubic feet. Eyesan described gas infrastructure, especially pipelines, as an investment opportunity.
Two pipeline projects were mentioned in that context, the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic Gas Pipeline and the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline. The report described both as still being on the drawing board, which means neither has reached the stage of construction or a final investment decision on the basis of the information BusinessDay gave.
Eyesan also addressed what investors care about most. According to the report, she said investors prioritise execution risk, cost, delays and uncertainty, and that the NUPRC has taken steps to mitigate these. The newspaper did not set out in detail what those steps are.
The Trans-Sahara route has been in the news in the region this week. The Rio Times, in its Africa Intelligence Brief for Monday, reported that about 60 Algerian fuel tankers, escorted by soldiers, reached Agadez in Niger on October 31. Citing Africanews and RFI, it said the stated aims included helping Niger against armed groups on the border and protecting the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, which Africanews says will carry Nigerian gas through Niger to Algeria.
The NUPRC regulates upstream petroleum operations in Nigeria and runs the process by which blocks are offered to companies. The portal opening on November 20 will be the first step for companies that want to bid for any of the 40 blocks. BusinessDay did not list the blocks, the closing date for bids, or the fiscal terms in the report, and the NUPRC has not been quoted on those details in the sources reviewed by Radarr Africa.
The BusinessDay report was written by Cynthia Egboboh and carried in the newspaper’s Energy section.
