TotalEnergies, MRS, others win 2024 oil licensing bid round

Winners have emerged in the ongoing 2024 oil licensing bid round.

The winners emerged at the licensing round commercial bid conference held in Lagos on Wednesday.

SIFAX & OceanGate won PPL 300-DO; OceanGate Engineering Oil and Gas Ltd won PPL 302-DO and PPL 3007; Homeland Integrated won PPL 304-DO; Hakilat Oil & Gas Consortium Ltd defeated NNPC E&P to clinch PPL 305-DO; BISWAL Oil & Gas Ltd also defeated NNPC E&P to win PPL 306-DO.

After having a tie, MRS Oil & Gas later defeated NNPC E&P to win PPL 303-DO.

Similarly, Petroli Energy Marketing and Supply Ltd got PPL 269; Sahara Deepwater Resources Ltd won both PPL 270 and PPL 271; Panout Oil & Gas beat TotalEnergies and three other bidders to secure PPL 300/301 CS. Panout also claimed PPL 3015.

In the same vein, TotalEnergies E&P won PPL 2000/2001.

As sole bidders, BISWAL won PPL 2002; First E&P has PPL 2003 and PPL 2006; Deywayles International Limited secured PPL 2004; Applefield Oil & Gas got PPL 2005; R28 Holdings Ltd won PPL 2007 and PPL 3011; Tulcan Energy E&P won PPL 2008 and 3012; Broron Energy secured PPL 2009; Hakilat Oil & Gas claimed PPL 3016; and Applefield Oil & Gas won PPL 3017.

Speaking, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, announced that there will be another oil licensing bid round in 2025.

According to him, the commission decided to make licensing rounds an annual exercise to boost oil production.

Komolafe said the 2025 exercise would focus on unexplored assets.

“While we are proud of our recent achievements as industry stakeholders, we must remain mindful of the challenges ahead. Declined production levels and failed global competition demand strategic action. Interestingly, the Petroleum Industry Act has given us a unique opportunity to transform the industry, attract investments and position Nigeria as a forefronter.

“To this end, I am pleased to announce that the NUPRC will launch another licensing round in the year 2025. Building on the lessons learned from this year’s round, the 2025 exercise will focus on discovered and undeveloped fields, fallow assets and prioritise natural gas development to support Nigeria’s commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goals,” he announced.

Explaining further, Komolafe said the regulator’s commitment has been to restore investors’ confidence in the industry, saying that it has done so diligently by ensuring that its activities are in alignment with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act.

“What we are doing here today is not a matter of discretion by the commission or the statutory provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act. The statutory provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act provide that the commission should conduct licensing rounds.

“The law did not make it annual, but to ensure that we grow, preserve and optimise our hydrocarbon resources, as I said, we are committed to annual licensing rounds. And that’s why I said that after this (2024) exercise, we will commence another one in 2025,” he emphasised.

The NUPRC boss added that the commission has started the recovery of idle assets based on the ’drill or drop’ provision of the Petroleum Industry Act.

“There is a provision in the Petroleum Industry Act that speaks to ‘drill or drop’. So, we have been having engagements with the industry to ensure that unexplored areas and resources are harvested back into the basket; and we have done this. We intend to rebuild those idle assets because a lot of our assets remain idle and that is not the intent of the Petroleum Industry Act.

“So as a commission and as a regulator, we have started activating the drill or drop provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act, which is intended to ensure that our assets do not just remain idle. So, we are harvesting them into the basket, and we will ensure that they go for bidding to interested bidders in the next licensing round,” he stated.