Nigeria’s upstream regulator has told global investors that the country offers a stable and competitive climate despite worldwide energy tension, announcing that the bid portal for the 2026 Licensing Round will open on November 20.
ABU DHABI: The Commission Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, has assured investors that Nigeria offers a stable climate amid the global energy tension.
Eyesan urged investors to look towards Nigeria and take advantage of the 2026 Licensing Round, which has 40 oil and gas blocks on offer. She disclosed that the licensing round portal will officially open on November 20, 2026.
The NUPRC boss spoke on Monday, November 2, 2026, during a roundtable discussion titled “Energy Sovereignty in an Interconnected World: Aligning National Priorities, Markets and Global Security” at the 2026 ADIPEC Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi.
“We are expecting investors to turn to Nigeria. We are going in for another licensing round and we will be launching our bid portal on November 20. We expect to see interested investors because the environment is a lot more competitive,” she said.
She added: “We have set a very attractive fiscal framework for investors. The entire environment is a lot more secure. We have been able to manage costs with a lot of incentives for investors, and we expect to see investors take up the offer when we open the portal.”
Eyesan noted that Nigeria’s investment climate has improved since the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021 and the executive orders signed by President Bola Tinubu.
She stated that between 2021 and 2026, the NUPRC held at least four successful licensing rounds that attracted fresh investments into the country.
This, she said, marks a departure from the pre-PIA era, when licensing rounds were infrequent.
The CCE said Nigeria has vast energy potential, sitting on 215TCF of gas while daily production is barely 7bcf. According to her, this presents an opportunity for investors, especially with key gas infrastructure in the pipeline.
“The stars are already aligned. For gas infrastructure we just completed very major infrastructure projects that will unlock gas supply in the country and the sub-region,” she said.
She continued: “We talk about two major projects on the drawing board to move gas through the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic Gas Pipeline and Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline. Again, this gas will go somewhere in Europe and will also meet regional demands. So, Nigeria is positioned to meet not just domestic supply.”
Eyesan maintained that with many countries discovering petroleum resources, the race for investment has become more competitive.
She said Nigeria was already ahead of the game, having made modifications to attract the right capital.
“We understand that investors will prize execution risk, cost, delays and also uncertainty and so what we have done in Nigeria is to ensure that we guard against these risks and then attract the investment required to enable us unlock the huge resources we sit on,” she said.
