2026 Oil Licensing: FG Opens 40 Blocks, Tightens Transparency Rules for Investors
2026 Oil Licensing: FG Opens 40 Blocks, Tightens Transparency Rules for Investors
The Federal Government has opened Nigeria’s 2026 oil licensing round with 40 petroleum blocks on offer, while introducing stricter transparency requirements aimed at ensuring that the identities of the real owners behind bidding companies are known.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) announced the licensing exercise as part of efforts to attract fresh investment into the upstream sector and position Nigeria as a more predictable destination for oil and gas capital.
The 40 blocks cover land, shallow-water and deepwater terrains, and will be available to investors that demonstrate the required technical expertise, financial capacity and commitment to developing the assets.
NUPRC Chief Executive Officer, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said the new licensing framework would require every bidder to disclose its beneficial owners, while the evaluation methodology and results would also be published more extensively.
The move is significant because it seeks to strengthen transparency around ownership and reduce uncertainty over who ultimately controls companies seeking access to Nigeria’s petroleum resources. The commission said the new approach incorporated recommendations from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
According to the NUPRC, NEITI’s review of previous licensing exercises identified areas requiring improvement, including evaluation procedures, publication of results, access to bidding information and beneficial ownership disclosure.
Eyesan also stressed that the era of discretionary allocation of petroleum acreage had ended, pointing to the Petroleum Industry Act’s requirement for transparent and competitive bidding in the award of petroleum licences.
The latest round comes after strong participation in the 2025 licensing exercise, where 143 companies submitted 200 bids and 31 companies emerged winners of 37 blocks. The process also attracted interest in frontier areas such as the Anambra Basin, Benue Trough, Chad Basin and Benin Basin.
Beyond attracting investors, the Federal Government is looking to translate new acreage into actual production. The NUPRC said assets from recent licensing exercises, if successfully developed, could contribute about 500 million barrels of reserves and at least 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil and condensate production within five years.
The commission also expects additional gas reserves and production from the assets, supporting the Federal Government’s wider push to expand gas utilisation under its Decade of Gas initiative.
Meanwhile, the NUPRC has warned successful bidders that securing an oil block will not be enough. Eyesan declared that operators must develop the assets, stressing the regulator’s “Drill or Drop” principle and making clear that licences are commitments to Nigeria rather than assets to be held without development.
The 2026 licensing round therefore represents more than another allocation of petroleum acreage. It is also a test of Nigeria’s ability to combine investment attraction with transparency, competitive bidding and actual development of its oil and gas resources.
The NUPRC said detailed information on the 40 blocks, qualification requirements, bidding procedures and timetable would be made available through its licensing platforms as the exercise progresses.
