The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has announced the completion of the pre-qualification stage of the 2025 Licensing Round and notified successful pre-qualified applicants to bid for 50 Oil blocks offered by the Commission.
NUPRC made this known in a statement released on Tuesday, March 17, signed by the Commission’s Head of Media and Strategic Communication, Eniola Akinkuotu.
According to the statement, the pre-qualification process was completed on Monday, March 16, in line with the 2025 Licensing Round Guidelines, setting the stage for the next phase of the exercise.
“The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) wishes to inform the public that it has completed the pre-qualification stage of the 2025 Licensing Round and has notified successful pre-qualified applicants accordingly,” part of the statement reads.
“This was done on March 16, 2026, in line with the 2025 Licensing Round Guidelines.”
NUPRC said that following the completion of the pre-qualification stage, the next step will be for the shortlisted applicants to be given access to subsurface data, beginning from Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in preparation for the technical and commercial bid submissions.
“Please note, pre-qualified applicants are mandated to lease data only from the two data sources (as applicable) and upload evidence of payment as a pre-requisite to the submission of bids,” the Commission added, directing the public to visit the NUPRC licensing round portal: https://br2025.nuprc.gov.ng for more details.
The NUPRC formally launched the 2025 oil licensing round in December 2025 after President Bola Tinubu approved the exercise to attract fresh investments in Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector and boost oil production.
The upstream regulator announced that 50 oil and gas blocks located across shallow offshore, deepwater and onshore terrains in Nigeria were on offer to prospective bidders.
The Commission set a target of attracting over $10 billion in investments in the oil and gas sector and adding an additional two million barrels of oil production.
The Commission closed the Pre-qualification exercise on February 27 in accordance with Section 11.2 of the Licensing Round Guidelines.
The Commission introduced a five-stage process for the 2025 Licensing Round exercise. These include: Registration and Pre-qualification, data prying/ purchase, Technical bid submission, Technical bid Evaluation and commercial bid conference.
Pinnacle Daily reports that the Commission had stressed that the bidding process would be digital, transparent and that selection of successful bidders would be based on merit. NUPRC affirmed that it would focus on technical competence and financial capacity for selecting bidders for the oil wells.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist, scholar and analyst of socioeconomic issues in Nigeria and Africa. He is skilled in energy reporting, business and economy, and holds a master's degree in Mass Communication. He can be reached via @VICTOREZEJA on X
