KEY POINTS
- NUPRC confirmed the 2026 oil licensing round will launch by Q3, backed by presidential approval.
- The 2025 licensing round’s commercial bid phase is scheduled to take place in July 2026.
- Meren Energy named Nigeria its number one investment destination in Africa during the Abuja visit.
Nigeria is not waiting for the world to come back. It is telling the world to hurry up.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission confirmed Wednesday that the 2026 oil licensing round will commence by the third quarter of this year, following approval from the minister of petroleum resources in line with the Petroleum Industry Act.
Commission chief executive Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan made the announcement during a visit by Meren Energy, formerly known as Africa Oil, to the NUPRC’s Abuja headquarters. The timing matters. The commercial bid stage of the ongoing 2025 licensing round is set for July. Once that wraps, the 2026 cycle begins immediately.
“We are in the process of finalising the 2026 launch, which will happen latest by the third quarter,” Eyesan said. “This is the make or break point and we want to make sure we make it.”
What the 2025 round is already saying
Eyesan did not frame the 2026 round in isolation. She tied it directly to what the 2025 round has already demonstrated: that Nigeria’s upstream sector is attracting serious global interest again.
She described participation levels in the 2025 round as a testament to the country heading in the right direction, pointing to rising investment and climbing production as the clearest evidence that the sector has regained its appeal under President Bola Tinubu. Presidential approval has already been secured for the 2026 round, she confirmed, adding an institutional weight to the announcement that goes beyond a regulatory calendar update.
Meren Energy puts Nigeria at the top
The visit itself carried its own signal. Oliver Quinn, group chief executive of Meren Energy, told the commission that Nigeria sits at the top of the company’s African investment priorities and that regulatory reforms had directly encouraged the firm to deepen its exposure.
Meren has operated in Agbami, Akpo and Egina, three of Nigeria’s most consequential deepwater fields. Quinn said the company has committed roughly $11 billion in capital to those assets over two decades, with approximately $4 billion paid in taxes and royalties to the Nigerian state. The company is now actively seeking to participate in asset divestments and future licensing rounds, he said, describing Nigeria as the core of its business.
