The successful bidders in Nigeria’s 57 marginal oil fields for the 2022 bid round will receive their various Petroleum Prospecting Licences on Tuesday, according to the Federal Government.
Remember that the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources issued letters of award to investors on May 31, 2021, for the production of crude oil from 57 marginal fields.
Additionally, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission revealed in January of this year that a total of 128 awardees had made full and partial payments for signature bonuses in the oil fields after winning the bid round.
In the meantime, it also declared at the time that 33 awardees had lost their awards to suitably qualified reserve bidders because they had failed to make payments during the 45-day window given to successful bidders to pay the required signature bonuses for the oil fields.
“In fulfillment of the promise made earlier this year, the NUPRC will issue Petroleum Prospecting Licences to successful awardees of marginal fields in the 2020 bid round on Tuesday in Abuja, pursuant to the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021,” he said.
“It will also reveal the implementation template for the host communities development trust for the implementation of the provisions under Section 235 of the PIA, 2021, to positively impact restiveness in the host communities.”
According to Komolafe, establishing the development trust would ensure smooth operations, boost investor confidence, and create an enabling environment for long-term improvement of the country’s hydrocarbon resources.
“These will mark the completion of some of the most urgent and critical tasks inherited by the commission when it was inaugurated in October 2021, following the PIA 2021’s signing into law,” he said.
In March of this year, the commission informed all participants in the 2020 marginal field bid round program that it had put all necessary machinery in place to complete the bid round exercise in accordance with the PIA 2021.
In accordance with that resolution, the commission formed an in-house work team to distill and address awardee concerns in order to close out issues affecting multiple awardees per asset and awardee formation of Special Purpose Vehicles in accordance with the respective letters.
