The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the chief regulator of the nation’s oil and gas upstream sector, has opened 50 oil and gas blocks across five sedimentary basins for bidding in the 2025 licensing round. The commission warned that only technically competent and financially strong firms would be allowed to scale through the newly designed, merit-based process. “This upstream sector is serious business. Eyesan reaffirmed that the process would remain open to scrutiny by agencies like the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). The licensing round is positioned as a clear signal that Nigeria’s upstream sector has been re-engineered to attract serious, long-term investment in a competitive global market for capital.