Nigeria has offered oil blocks in the Lake Chad basin, a region that has been at the centre of a long-running Islamist insurgency, as the country pushes to revive exploration and attract new investment through cheaper licensing rounds.
Out of the 50 oil and gas blocks on offer in Nigeria’s latest licensing round, four are located in the Lake Chad basin, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), which briefed investors this week, Bloomberg reported.
The basin lies close to Nigeria’s northeastern border, where militant violence linked to Boko Haram and its splinter groups has persisted for more than a decade.
The offering marks a renewed effort to unlock Nigeria’s so-called frontier basins, even as security risks continue to weigh on investor appetite. It is notably the first oil blocks offer outside of the Niger Delta.
Nigeria is seeking to reverse years of underinvestment that have left crude output well below capacity.
The 2025 licensing round, launched last month after delays, includes 15 onshore blocks, 19 shallow-water assets, 15 frontier basin blocks and one deepwater block, according to the regulator. Authorities have said future licensing rounds will now be held annually.
As part of the push to attract investors, Nigeria has slashed entry costs. The NUPRC said it has reduced the signature bonus for blocks in the current round to between $3 million and $7 million, down from $10 million in 2024 and far below the roughly $200 million required in earlier rounds.
The lower fees are intended to shift focus away from upfront payments toward technical capability, credible work programmes, financial strength and faster development timelines, the regulator said.
“You are not navigating uncertainty, you are operating with a framework that is transparent, predictable and deliberately designed to inspire confidence,” NUPRC chief Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan told investors during the presentation, according to Reuters, in her first licensing round since taking office in December.
To bolster confidence, the regulator said the bidding process will be subject to oversight by Nigeria’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and other government agencies. The process will also be fully digital, allowing investors to access data and submit bids through an online portal.
Major international oil companies have already signalled interest. Chevron said in December it plans to participate in the auction, while TotalEnergies has also expressed interest, Reuters reported.
Renewed push in frontier basins
Nigeria has in recent years renewed exploration efforts in frontier regions, including the Lake Chad basin, after decades of limited activity.
In 2023, the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) resumed oil drilling in the basin with the Wadi-B well in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, marking the first such activity there since 1995. Former President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the campaign, describing it as part of a broader effort to expand Nigeria’s reserves beyond the Niger Delta.
Buhari also launched the Kolmani Integrated Development Project on the boundary between Bauchi and Gombe states in November 2022, and later approved the spudding of the Ebenyi-A exploration well in Nasarawa State in March 2023.
The frontier push comes as Nigeria seeks to raise crude output to 2.7 million barrels per day by 2027, up from about 1.5 million bpd, and to boost government revenues, reserves and foreign investment inflows.
Oil remains Nigeria’s main source of export earnings, but production has been hampered by years of pipeline vandalism, theft and regulatory uncertainty, particularly in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
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