The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has informed applicants who successfully pre-qualified for the 2025 Oil Licensing Round. This notification is in accordance with the guidelines for the 2025 Licensing Round.

Successful applicants are now permitted to lease data, commencing March 17, 2026, in preparation for the technical and commercial bid submissions. Evidence of payment for data leasing must be uploaded as a prerequisite for bid submission.

The NUPRC stated that pre-qualified applicants are mandated to lease data only from the two specified data sources. Further details can be found on the licensing round portal: https://br2025.nuprc.gov.ng/

The notification marks the end of the first phase of the bid round process, which is expected to span approximately six months. The NUPRC has reduced entry barriers, with signature bonuses ranging from $3 million to $7 million.

Earlier, on December 1, 2025, the NUPRC opened bids for 50 oil blocks. This initiative is part of the effort to attract $10 billion in investment and boost national reserves. The 50 blocks are distributed across various terrains.

The available blocks include 15 Onshore blocks, 19 Shallow water blocks, 15 Frontier assets, and 1 deepwater block.

In a separate development, Nigeria's crude oil production saw a significant decrease in February 2026, reaching only 88% of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota. This is a drop from the approximately 98% achieved in January 2026.

The OPEC quota for crude oil production is 1.5 million barrels per day (mbpd). However, Nigeria's output in February was 1.313mbpd.

Additionally, Nigeria produced 170,259 barrels per day of condensate in February, bringing the total combined output to 1.48mbpd. This data is according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) Crude Oil and Condensate Production February 2026 report.

The report indicated that the lowest combined crude oil and condensate production was 1.41 million barrels of oil per day (bopd), while the peak was 1.56 million bopd. The average crude oil production of 1.313mbpd represents 88% of the OPEC quota.

The daily average production for February was 1,483,954 barrels per day, comprising 1,313,695 bopd of crude oil and 170,259 bopd of condensate. This figure represents a sharp decline from the 1.62mbpd of crude oil and condensate produced in January.

In January 2026, Nigeria produced 1.45mbpd of crude oil and 116,373bpd of condensate. The dip in February production has been attributed to trunk line maintenance on some of the facilities.