The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Commission (NUPRC) has granted concession status to 243 oil blocks, arguing that this is completely untrue, despite a recent newspaper article claiming that some oil assets are being abandoned.
This was carried out in the spirit of transparency as envisioned under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, according to a statement released by the NUPRC yesterday.
Using statistics from the NUPRC, a recent research suggested that Nigeria currently has 220 available oil blocks dispersed over its onshore and offshore basins.
The country’s underutilized energy wealth in its most technically sophisticated but capital-intensive location is highlighted by the claim that the deep offshore terrain has the greatest number of unregistered blocks (59).
It said that whereas the Sokoto Basin has 28 blocks that have not yet been allocated and the Bida Basin has 16, the Benue Trough has 41 open blocks and the Chad Basin has 40.
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In addition, it said that there are still seven unlicensed blocks in the offshore Niger Delta, thirteen in the Anambra Basin, and eight in the Benin Basin and the onshore Niger Delta.
According to Section 7(t) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, which gives the commission the authority to hold periodic licensing rounds and award Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs) and Petroleum Mining Leases (PMLs) to potential investors, the commission clarified that 220 oil blocks were not abandoned but were instead merely awaiting concessions.
The commission also said that following recurring bidding cycles and the fulfillment of requirements, concessionaires would receive the 220 oil blocks.
The upstream regulator, directed by GbengaKomolafe, said that a popular report on the alleged abandoned oil blocks was a misrepresentation of the data it had posted on its website.
The upstream regulator urged the public to visit its website at https://www.nuprc.gov.ng/ for factual information on its operations, while also advising the media to exercise caution in their reporting and put the interests of the country first.
