FG Slashes Signature Bonuses to as Low as $3M as 2025 Oil Licensing Round Kicks Off
Story: written by Zara December 9,2025
The federal government has further reduced the signature bonuses for firms bidding for oil blocks, lowering the fee to between $3 million and $7 million as part of moves to make the 2025 Licensing Round more accessible. The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) announced the new rates on its website, confirming that all interested bidders must now submit offers within this revised range, as approved by the Minister of Petroleum Resources.
In its update, the commission stated: “All bidders shall submit a bid between $3 m and $7 m … in order to reduce entry barriers.” This represents a steep fall from previous rounds — in 2024, signature bonuses fell from close to $200 million down to $10 million; as of last year, deep-water assets required $10 million and shallow or onshore blocks $7 million. Under the new regime, those amounts have been slashed to $7 million and $3 million respectively.
Bidders are required to pay the signature bonus in US dollars — NUPRC specifies that the designated account is dollar-denominated. The winners of the 2025 Licensing Round will receive a Petroleum Prospecting Licence (PPL), granting them exclusive rights to drill exploration and appraisal wells, as well as non-exclusive rights for further petroleum exploration. Licence holders may also dispose of crude oil or gas from production tests.
The PPL runs for an initial period of three years, renewable for another three years for onshore and shallow-water blocks. Deep-water and frontier blocks carry a five-year initial term.
NUPRC’s bidding process will follow two stages: first, a qualification assessment; then, shortlisted firms will submit technical and commercial proposals. Applicants must sign confidentiality agreements before accessing bid documents. Each bidder — whether applying directly, via consortium, or through indirect participation — is limited to a maximum of two blocks. NUPRC clarified that all applications linked to a single bidder will be aggregated and treated as one, to prevent exploitation of the system.
In total, 50 blocks are up for grabs under the 2025 round, covering onshore, shallow-water, and deep offshore territories. Among them are blocks labeled PPL 2A29–2A62; PPL 2010; PPL 307–309; PPL 700–703; PPL 800–803; and PPL 900–903.
