Nigeria, July 21 -- The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has announced that 196 companies have qualified for the commercial bid stage of the 2025 oil licensing round, whilst 13 of the 50 oil blocks initially offered failed to attract bids and will be returned to the government's licensing basket.

The NUPRC Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, disclosed this whilst delivering her opening remarks at the Commercial Bid Conference in Abuja on Tuesday. She stated that only 37 of the 50 blocks attracted bids during the technical evaluation stage, with 140 companies submitting 196 bids.

"At the end of the exercise, we had 50 blocks on offer, but we only had representation for 37 of those 50 blocks. Thirteen of those b...