The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has confirmed it will launch the 2026 Oil Licensing Round by the third quarter of the year following approval by President Bola Tinubu, as the commission simultaneously announced the resolution of a brief industrial action by its workers after successful overnight negotiations.
Commission Chief Executive OritsemeyiwaEyesan made the disclosure during a visit to the commission’s Abuja headquarters by Meren Energy, formerly known as Africa Oil, saying the commercial bid for the 2025 round would take place in July before the 2026 round commenced. She said the heightened participation recorded in the 2025 Licensing Round was evidence that Nigeria’s oil and gas sector under the current administration had become genuinely attractive to investors.
Meren Energy Group Chief Executive Dr. Oliver Quinn said his company had invested approximately 11 billion dollars in Agbami, Akpo, and Egina deepwater assets over 20 years, with about 4 billion dollars going to taxes and royalties, and that Nigeria remained the core of the company’s business because of the quality of those assets. He said Meren Energy was the first company to sell crude oil to the Dangote refinery and would continue to fulfil its Domestic Crude Supply Obligation as long as pricing conditions remained favourable.
On the industrial action, the commission confirmed that a one-day warning strike by workers under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers was called off on the night of June 1, 2026, after successful negotiations between management and the two unions. The commission said the strike, which lasted approximately 12 hours, affected only administrative operations at headquarters while regulatory oversight activities across oil and gas facilities nationwide continued uninterrupted. It rejected media reports linking the dispute to foreign training opportunities and reports suggesting that crude oil production had been disrupted.
