Winners of marginal oil field blocks to receive licenses on Tuesday: NUPRC

Technocrat Media, Abuja

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) will on Tuesday issue petroleum prospecting licences (PPL) to successful winners of marginal fields in the 2020 bid round.

Marginal fields are smaller oil blocks developed by indigenous companies not exploited in the last ten years.

The Commission said it was targeting June for marginal field awardees to begin the field development plan (FDP).

NUPRC chief executive officer (CEO), Gbenga Komolafe, in a statement on Saturday announced that the official event marking the issuance would be held on Tuesday in Abuja. 

He said the Commission will also unveil the Implementation Template for the Host Communities Development Trust for commencement of the provisions under Section 235 of the PIA, 2021, to positively impact against restiveness in the host communities; and in the process guarantee seamless operations, boost investors’ confidence and provide enabling environment for sustainable development of the country’s hydrocarbon resources.

The NUPRC CEO emphasised that it would provide an enabling environment for the sustainable development of the country’s hydrocarbon resources.

“These will mark the conclusion of some of the most urgent and critical tasks inherited by the commission when it was inaugurated in October 2021, after the signing into law of the PIA 2021,” he said. 

He said the commission had informed all participants in the 2020 marginal field bid round programme about its conclusion in line with the PIA 2021.

“In furtherance of that resolution, the commission constituted an in-house work team to distil and address the concerns of awardees with a view to close-out issues affecting multiple awardees per asset and formation of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) by awardees in line with the respective letters of the award,” he said. 

“Awardees were, therefore, enjoined to avail themselves of the resolution mechanism provided by the commission in the overriding national interest.”

Mr Komolafe said the successful coordination and resolution of the issues resulted in the emergence of the successful awardees that would be handed licences this week.

In May 2021, according to TheCable, NUPRC had completed the first successful bid programme after 18 years. 

Over 600 companies had applied to be pre-qualified for the bid rounds of 57 marginal fields, which began on June 1, 2020.

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