The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, said it has begun the conduct of fresh bid round for marginal oil fields in Nigeria.
The NUPRC said 12 oil fields would be offered together with the five from the 2022 bid round that was put on hold due to the 2023 general elections.
The commission’s chief executive, Gbenga Komolafe, said this at the Maiden Edition of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Policy Dialogue on Monday in Abuja.
The NEITI House Dialogue is a platform for quarterly policy briefing by Chief Executive Officers and policy makers in the extractive industries to update the public on their activities.
It enables them present information and data on key transparency and accountability policy reform efforts either accomplished or ongoing in their respective organisations.
Mr Komolafe, in his presentation, said the bid round would be conducted between 2024 and 2025.
He stated that the Commission would conduct a comprehensive review of all awarded assets to ascertain active and idle assets in the industry.
He assured that the process would be fair, transparent and competitive in line with Section 73(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA.
He said it would be difficult to put a figure to the amount that would be generated from the bid round, adding, however, that it would run into billions of dollars.
According to him, the country’s oil production is currently hovering around 1.4mbpd and 1.5mbpd.
He said the petroleum environment prior to the PIA was chaotic, but had been changed with 25 regulations put in place by the Commission.
He added that the sector had become predictable for investors to come in.
Komolafe said the Commission awarded 49 gas flare sites under the gas commercialisation programme of the Federal Government, and generated N4.344 trillion revenue in 2023.
Earlier, in his Opening Remarks, the NEITI Executive Secretary, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, said the Dialogue would host notable policy makers in Nigeria’s extractive industries and related sectors.
Orji said it would address issues that were of interest and topical to the industry.
He added that the policy dialogue would also get the invited policy maker to provide update or status report on the implementation of NEITI report recommendations as it concerned the agency.
“This is with a view to deepening not just government oversight and reforms in the extractive sector, but making it inclusive of all stakeholders.
“Selected section of company representatives, media and civil society actors will be invited to the programme live.
“This is to demonstrate the multi-stakeholders’ nature of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) process,” he said.
NAN
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