The Federal Government has reduced the signature bonus for the 2025 petroleum licensing round to between $3 million and $7 million.
A signature bonus is a one-off payment made by oil companies upon signing an agreement for the award of an exploration or production licence or lease.
Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) disclosed this in a statement where it warned that any bidder who fails to propose a signature bonus within the approved range would be disqualified.
The commission said all bidders would be required to submit a bid within “a range of $3 million and $7 million as approved by the minister of petroleum for the reduction of entry barriers.”.
It further stated that all bids would be assessed using a score-based system that considers several criteria.
NUPRC listed the parameters to include signature bonus (provided it is within the prescribed limit), proposed work programme, and the unit cost per barrel in relation to the work programme.
Other evaluation factors as listed by the commission include professionalism, human and technical capacity, percentage of bank guarantee made available, balance sheet, turnover, green story and decarbonisation programme, and corporate governance structure.
On December 1, NUPRC officially launched the 2025 Licensing Round, introducing a digital bid portal as the country moves to deepen investment and strengthen activities in the upstream sector.
Following presidential approval, the commission has placed 50 oil and gas blocks on offer across several terrains, including onshore, shallow water, frontier basins, and deepwater.
Chief Executive Officer, Gbenga Komolafe, had said the 2025 Licensing Round is projected to attract about $10 billion in investments, add up to two billion barrels to national oil reserves over the next decade, and deliver an estimated 400,000 barrels per day from fully developed assets.
Meanwhile, the NUPRC has adopted a two-stage procedure consisting of a qualification stage and a bidding stage.
