New Set of Billionaires to Emerge as Nigerian Government Awards Oil Fields to 20 Companies, More to Follow

• In 2021, Nigerian government conducted a bid round for 57 marginal oil fields with 30 successful companies
• The oil bid round was conducted by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) now Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Petroleum Commission (NURPC)
• 160 companies were shortlisted, but only 30 was selected and it expected at least 100 million barrels of oil will be produced

The Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Petroleum Commission (NURPC) has disclosed that at least 57 Nigerian oil and gas companies that successfully won its last marginal field bid round have paid N174.944 billion license fee.

The bid which took place in 2020 and concluded in 2021 has 160 Nigerian companies vying for 57 oilfields.

The last time the Nigerian government conducted such exercise was in 2003, when 24 assets were put on offer and so the rise of several oil billionaires.

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Marginal fields are smaller oil blocks typically developed by indigenous companies and have remained unproduced for a period of over 10 years.

List of successful companies

Some of the companies which emerged winners include: Matrix Energy, AA Rano, Andova Plc, Duport Midstream, Genesis Technical, Twin Summit, Bono Energy, Deep Offshore Integrated, Oodua Oil, MRS and Petrogas.

A few others that succeeded in crossing the hurdle and had fully satisfied all conditions were: North Oils and Gas, Pierport, Metropole, Pioneer Global, Shepherd Hill, Akata, NIPCO, Aida, YY Connect, Accord Oil, Pathway Oil, Tempo Oil, Virgin Forest among others.

Big win for Nigeria

The lease is believe to be a big win for Nigeria struggling to produce enough oil for sale.

NURPC which is in charge of upstream after replacing Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) will be hoping to 100 million barrels of oil.

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In a recent presentation it made to the Senate Committee on Petroleum, Upstream, led by Mr Bassey Akpan said:

"The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production quota of 1.683 million bpd in January and 1.701 million barrels per day in February, it is only able to pump 1.396 million barrels per day currently, leading to a loss of at least 115,926 million barrels per day on a daily basis, put at roughly $300 million monthly.

“We are losing about 115, 926 barrels per day, so that literally translates to roughly about $300 million and that’s a huge loss to a nation that actually requires these funds."

Nigeria spends N60billion annually to repair vandalized pipelines

The federal government says it spends N60billion every year to repair and maintain vandalized oil pipelines in Nigeria.

The minister of Information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed this at the town hall meeting on protecting oil and gas infrastructure attended by a Legit.ng reporter in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The minister also revealed that Nigeria loses an average of 200,000 barrels per day to the wanton damage to pipelines and other oil and gas facilities.

Source: Legit.ng