Upstream Sector Attracts $18.2bn Investment, Unlocks 1.4bn Oil Barrels

Nigeria’s upstream lipid and state assemblage has attracted $18.2 cardinal successful caller concern commitments, unlocking up to 1.4 cardinal barrels of lipid and 5.4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, the main enforcement of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Engr. Gbenga Komolafe announced connected Tuesday.

This surge successful concern is accompanied by a important emergence successful rig number from conscionable 8 successful 2021 to 43 arsenic of September 2025, signalling a revival successful upstream activities.

Speaking astatine the Africa Oil Week successful Accra, Ghana, Engr. Komolafe attributed these achievements to Nigeria’s competitory betterment docket nether President Bola Tinubu’s renewed imaginativeness for the vigor sector.

The commitments are expected to adhd 591,000 barrels of lipid per time and 2.1 cardinal modular cubic feet per time (BSCFD) of gas, pushing Nigeria person to its extremity of producing implicit 3 cardinal barrels of crude lipid per day.

The NUPRC brag highlighted that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, has ushered successful a caller epoch of governance, fiscal reform, and organization realignment, creating a conducive situation for investment.

He revealed that since its inception, the Commission has enacted 24 transformative regulations, 19 of which person been gazetted to instrumentality cardinal provisions of the PIA. The NUPRC has besides launched a broad Regulatory Action Plan (RAP) to region bottlenecks, easiness introduction barriers, and guarantee timely and transparent licensing rounds.

Among notable developments successful 2025, the committee approved 28 caller Field Development Plans (FDPs), unlocking the important lipid and state volumes mentioned earlier alongside $18.2 cardinal successful superior expenditure commitments. Major projects specified arsenic the $5 cardinal Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Bonga North heavy offshore improvement and the $500 cardinal Ubeta Gas Project underpin the sector’s renewed dynamism, with respective different projects similar HI NAG Development, Ima Gas, Owowo Deep Offshore, and Preowei Fields poised for further FIDs.

Since President Tinubu took office, 5 large acquisition deals worthy implicit $5 cardinal person been sanctioned, facilitating greater information by ambitious indigenous players. Recent bid rounds and concession awards, including the 57 Production Sharing License (PPL) awards successful 2022, the 2022 Mini-Bid Round, and the 2024 Licensing Round, were conducted with unprecedented transparency and competitiveness, starring to palmy uptake of 27 retired of 31 blocks offered successful 2024.

Engr. Komolafe affirmed that Nigeria stands astatine the dawn of a caller epoch characterised by clarity, competitiveness, and confidence.

“With the Petroleum Industry Act arsenic our foundation, reinforced by bold Presidential Executive Orders and transformative regulatory initiatives, we are not conscionable opening our doors to investment; we are gathering a world-class upstream situation that rewards ambition, innovation, and responsibility,” helium said.

These developments underscore the sector’s increasing attractiveness and its captious relation successful strengthening Nigeria’s vigor security, economical growth, and shared prosperity crossed Africa.

This translation marks a cardinal milestone successful the country’s upstream lipid and state journey, poised to present important benefits for years to come.