The Federal Government has announced the addition of 17 deep offshore oil blocks to the 2024 Licensing Round for oil fields in Nigeria.
Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, disclosed this at the pre-bid conference for the 2024 licencing round in Lagos.
Komolafe, in a statement he signed and issued, said 17 deep offshore blocks had been added to the 2024 Licensing Round.
He said in pursuit of the commission’s commitment to derive value from the country’s abundant oil and gas reserves and increase production, the commission has been working assiduously with multi-client companies to undertake more exploratory activities to acquire more data to foster and encourage further investment in the Nigerian upstream sector.
Komolafe further stated that as a result of additional data acquired in respect of deep offshore blocks, the commission has added 17 deep offshore blocks to the 2024 Licensing Round. Further details on the blocks can be found on the bid portal.
According to him, the published guidelines had earlier indicated that some of the assets on offer should be applied for as clusters, namely: PPL 300-CS & PPL 301-CS, PPL 2000 and PPL 2001, but bidders could now, at their option, bid for those blocks as clusters or as single units.
The NUPRC boss also stated that to allow interested investors to take advantage of the expanded opportunities, the 2024 Licencing Round schedule had been amended.
Recently, some deep offshore blocks were put on offer for the 2022/23 mini-bid round and other blocks which cut across onshore, continental shelf and deep offshore terrains were also put on offer for the Nigeria 2024 Licencing Round, and the government had invited investors to bid for 12 oil blocks and seven deep offshore assets in the 2024 marginal fields bid round.
