Abuja, April 29, 2024 – The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) on Monday started the 2024 marginal fields bid round for 17 oil blocks.
Gbenga Komolafe, Its Chief Executive, disclosed this at an the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) programme in Abuja on Monday.
He said that the process would end by January 2025.
“It is my pleasure and honour to announce to you that the 2024 licensing round as prescribed in the Petroleum Industry Act will commence from the end of this month and will be in the market.
“The process has commenced and we set very clear criteria that will guide the implementation of the process from beginning to end in a transparent manner,” he said.
Komolafe said there were 12 blocks in addition to the seven blocks that their bid round was not completed in from the 2022 process.
Although seven plus 12 should have been 19 blocks, he insisted 17 blocks are offered in the 2024 bid round.
“As it relates to the 2024 bid process, we are currently putting on offer 12 blocks.
“But I need to recall that remember that we commenced a bid process in 2022, where we put seven deep offshore assets on offer, but as the termination (completion date) was close to the last election we had to put a hold on it for the bid not to near the political process.
“But right now, we are completing that process and we equally have 12 new bid rounds in the ongoing process. So, in totality, we target to complete 17 blocks on offer between now and early next year.”
Komolafe said the commission was reviewing the awarded assets that were underperforming and those that had not been brought to maturity. (GBN)
