Nigeria opens 2026 licensing round with 40 oil and gas blocks
Nigeria’s upstream regulator launched a 2026 licensing round on October 6, offering 40 blocks across land, shallow-water and deepwater areas.
Event / data period: 2026-10-06
Published: · Updated:
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) announced on October 6 that its 2026 licensing round had opened. Commission chief Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan said applicants would need technical competence, financial capacity and a commitment to develop the resources.
NUPRC said the guidelines would fully describe evaluation methods, provide fuller publication of results and require disclosure of each bidder’s beneficial owners. Eyesan also cited more than 788,000 barrels per day of shut-in production identified across 63 operators and offshore projects valued at an estimated $30 billion to $50 billion seeking final investment decisions; these are stated opportunities, not new output.
Data
Licensing round and production opportunities
Licensing and production context reported by NUPRC on October 6, 2026.
- Blocks offered
- 40 count
- 2026-10-06 · Observed
- Shut-in oil production
- ≥0.788 million barrels per day
- 2026-10-06 · Estimate
Methodology
Values are transcribed from the NUPRC announcement. Forty is the number of blocks offered; shut-in production is the regulator’s stated lower bound.
Updated:
Subjects and places
Subject proposals
- Oil and gasSuggested
- Subject suggested from the title or summary: oil and gaswww.nuprc.gov.ng ↗
Geographic references
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- Nigeria · Place role: Coverage · Place type: Country or area · Location precision: RegionalEvidence
- Explicit preserved editorial country/region; no city or national centroid inferredwww.nuprc.gov.ng ↗