NUPRC extends oil block licensing bid round for 2024 by 10 days

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has announced a 10-day extension for the registration and submission of pre-qualification documents for the 2024 oil block licensing round.

Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive officer (CEO) of NUPRC, announced the extension in a statement on Tuesday.

He said the extension is to allow interested investors to take advantage of the expanded opportunities.

“Registration/Submission of Pre-Qualification Documents which was initially scheduled to close on 25 June 2024 has been extended by 10 days and will now close on 5 July 2024,” he said. 

Komolafe said data access, data purchase, evaluation, bid preparation and submission, which was initially scheduled to open on July 4 and “close on 29/11/24 will now start on 8 July 2024 and close on 29/11/24 as previously scheduled”.

According to the NUPRC boss, all other dates in the published 2024 licencing round schedule remain the same unless otherwise communicated.

He said in pursuit of the commission’s commitment to derive value from the country’s abundant oil and gas reserves and increase production, NUPRC has been working assiduously with multi-client companies to undertake more exploratory activities.

Komolafe said this is to acquire more data to foster and encourage further investment in the Nigerian upstream sector.

NUPRC, according to Komolafe, has added 17 deep offshore blocks to the 2024 licencing round as a result of additional data acquired with respect to deep offshore blocks.

He said petroleum processing lease “PPL 300-CS & PPL 301-CS, PPL 2000 and PPL 2001, which the commission has advised bidders to apply for in clusters may now be applied for as single units”.

On May 14, the NUPRC announced the commencement of the 2024 oil block licencing round.