The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said it has recovered over 50 fallow oil fields for new licensing rounds following a strict enforcement of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) provisions on acreage management, as regulator and industry leaders map out a pathway to attract $100 billion in sector investments.
The recovery forms part of the regulator’s intensified drive to enforce its “drill-or-drop” policy, designed to eradicate acreage warehousing, a practice where operators hold onto blocks without progressing work programs and accelerate national oil and gas output.
Speaking during a panel session at the NUPRC’s fifth anniversary event in Abuja, Olaide Shaw, Director of Acreage Management at the NUPRC, disclosed that the recovered assets were re-entered into the licensing process after previous awardees failed to develop them.
“About two years ago, we had the fallow fields campaign… We were able to recover over 50 fallow fields by implementing a portion of the PIA. Today, those fallow fields have been put into subsequent licensing rounds for folks that will be able to develop them,” Shaw said.
Defining acreage warehousing, Shaw cautioned against operators retaining blocks purely for corporate positioning or focusing resources solely on primary assets while neglecting others.
“Acreage warehousing is taking photo-ops, putting a licence in the briefcase, taking lovely pictures, posting on social media, and then when the licence is about to expire, running to the regulator for more time without plans or resources.
” Acreage warehousing is a no-no. Any acreage that has been warehoused, we guarantee you, we’ll put them in the basket,” she added, contrasting it with active acreages characterized by ongoing seismic acquisition, procurement, and drilling contracts.
To streamline processes and reduce turnaround times, Shaw noted that the NUPRC has fully digitized its workflow, eliminating paper-based application processing and partnering with multi-client partners like TGS and Verizon to expand data availability for investors.
The regulatory crackdown she said, came as major domestic independent players roll out aggressive expansion targets.
Tony Attah, Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Energy, revealed plans to ramp up company production to 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2030. Currently producing around 265,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), the company aims to scale oil output to 500,000 bpd while significantly deepening its footprint in the domestic gas market.
While Renaissance currently supplies over 2.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day (Bcf/d) to Nigeria LNG (NLNG), Attah emphasized that domestic utilization remains key to industrial growth.
“Consistent with our vision of industrialisation of Nigeria, we’re very well aware that export gas will not industrialise Nigeria. So for that, we are committed to bringing in 1 BCF of gas into Nigeria,” Attah stated, marking a nearly fivefold increase from its current domestic delivery of 200 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d).
In his address, Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, Chief Executive Officer of First E&P and Nigeria’s Governor to OPEC, highlighted that the country is entering an investment cycle capable of attracting $100 billion into the upstream domain.
He urged stakeholders to ensure that capital spend translates into local value creation across contractors, service providers, and communities.
“We are moving from an extractive industry to value retention. So when that $100 billion has been spent, we must make sure it’s felt in Nigeria. Not just in China or Korea or Singapore or Houston. It must be felt here,” Adeyemi-Bero said.
He further stressed the importance of rigorous technical and financial due diligence during licensing rounds to prevent under-capitalized operators from acquiring assets dependent entirely on debt financing for high-risk exploration work.
Addressing the national target of 3 million bpd by 2030, Adeyemi-Bero noted that reaching the milestone requires constructing a robust project pipeline.
“Bonga Southwest is supposed to be 180,000 barrels a day when it comes. So, we need roughly eight Bongas. It’s not impossible,” he observed, adding that Nigeria remains positioned to secure a higher OPEC production quota when reviewed next year.
Regulatory Predictability and Deepwater Momentum
Operators and regulators at the session concurred that speed of execution and regulatory predictability remain vital to sustaining capital inflows.
Enorense Amadasu, Executive Commissioner for Development and Production at NUPRC, affirmed that the commission is structured to build an enabling, competitive, and predictable environment, empowering operators toward progressive self-regulation.
SOURCE: Businessday
