Nigeria puts 40 oil and gas blocks up for bids, with the portal opening on 20 November
The upstream regulator will open its bid portal for the 2026 licensing round on 20 November, offering 40 blocks across onshore, shallow water and deepwater. Here is what a licensing round is and why it matters to you.
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In 30 seconds
- NUPRC will open the bid portal for the 2026 oil and gas licensing round on 20 November 2026.
- 40 blocks are on offer, spread across onshore, shallow water and deepwater areas.
- The date was announced by NUPRC chief executive Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan at the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi on 2 November.
- Nigeria holds about 215 trillion cubic feet of gas but produces only around 7 billion cubic feet a day.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission will open the bid portal for its 2026 oil and gas licensing round on 20 November. Forty blocks are on offer to Nigerian and foreign companies.
The commission's chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, gave the date at the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday 2 November, in a statement reported by Nairametrics and Parrot Nigeria. "We are going in for another licensing round and we will be launching our bid portal on November 20," she said.
What is on offer
The 40 blocks sit in three kinds of terrain: onshore, shallow water near the coast, and deepwater further out in the Atlantic. The commission has not yet published the full list of blocks or the fees and closing dates for this round. We will update this story when it does.
This is at least the fifth round the commission has run since 2021. According to Nairametrics, the 2025 round ended with 37 blocks awarded to 31 companies.
Why the government is doing it
Eyesan told the conference that Nigeria holds about 215 trillion cubic feet of gas but produces barely 7 billion cubic feet a day. Licensing more blocks is how the government tries to turn reserves in the ground into production, royalties and jobs.
She said the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021 and the executive orders signed by President Tinubu have made the investment terms more competitive, and that the commission is working on the things investors complain about most: project delays, high operating costs and policy uncertainty.
What it means for you
A licensing round does not change the price of petrol or the hours of light at your house this year. New blocks take years to move from award to first oil or gas.
What it can change is the medium term. More gas production means more feedstock for power stations, fertiliser plants and CNG, and more royalties and taxes for government. It also decides which companies, Nigerian or foreign, will run the next generation of fields.
The thing to watch after 20 November is who bids and how quickly awards are made. Earlier rounds have drawn criticism for slow awards and for licences that sat idle. This round will be judged on whether the blocks move.
Words to know
- Licensing round
- A sale in which the government invites companies to bid for the right to explore and produce oil and gas in named areas, called blocks.
- Block
- A mapped area of land or seabed that one licence covers.
- NUPRC
- The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the body that oversees exploration and production under the Petroleum Industry Act.
Sources
- Nairametrics: NUPRC sets November 20 for opening of 2026 licensing round portal (3 Nov 2026)
- Parrot Nigeria: NUPRC opens bidding for 40 oil, gas blocks Nov 20 (3 Nov 2026)
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