Nigeria’s upstream regulator says recovered acreages are being returned to licensing rounds as operators outline ambitious production and investment plans.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has recovered more than 50 undeveloped oil fields from previous holders and is preparing to enforce its drill-or-drop rules more firmly to prevent investors from retaining licences without meaningful development.
At a panel discussion marking the commission’s fifth anniversary in Abuja, NUPRC Director of Acreage Management Olaide Shaw said the assets were recovered through provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act and subsequently offered in licensing rounds to companies willing and able to develop them.
Shaw said an operator must demonstrate progress through seismic work, procurement, drilling contracts, financing and other measurable commitments. Simply holding an award and seeking extensions when it approaches expiry would no longer be acceptable, she warned. The regulator would return warehoused acreage to the pool for other investors.
She said the commission’s transition to digital processing had improved the speed of applications and approvals, while efforts with data partners were intended to make subsurface information more accessible to prospective developers.
The enforcement drive coincides with expansion plans announced by Renaissance Energy. Its chief executive, Tony Attah, said the company currently produces about 265,000 barrels of crude daily and wants to reach approximately 500,000 barrels a day as part of a broader target of one million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030.
Attah said Renaissance was already supplying more than 2.2 billion cubic feet of gas daily to Nigeria LNG. He also pledged to raise domestic gas supply from about 200 million standard cubic feet a day towards one billion cubic feet a day, arguing that gas retained for Nigerian industries would do more to support local manufacturing than exports alone.
Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, chief executive of First E&P and Nigeria’s governor at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said an anticipated investment cycle of about $100 billion must generate contracts, jobs, tax receipts and industrial capacity within Nigeria. He urged banks to finance indigenous oilfield service companies so that a shortage of rigs, vessels, equipment or skilled contractors would not delay projects.
Adeyemi-Bero described the national ambition of producing three million barrels of oil daily by 2030 as difficult but achievable through a sufficient pipeline of projects. He cited the proposed 180,000-barrel-a-day Bonga South West development to illustrate the scale of new production required. He also expressed confidence that Nigeria could secure an appropriate OPEC quota when the matter was reviewed next year, although no quota decision was announced.
Representatives of Eni and Shell emphasized faster execution and predictable regulation. Shell Nigeria country chair Elohor Aiboni pointed to deepwater projects, including Bonga North, as evidence of investment activity, while NUPRC Executive Commissioner Enorense Amadasu said the regulator wanted clear rules and greater certainty for investors.
The commission’s central message was that exploration licences must translate into funded work and production, rather than remain dormant assets on company balance sheets.
