Nigerians have criticised the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, over its plan to organise two days of training for awardees of Petroleum Prospecting Licences, PPLs.
DAILY POST reports that NUPRC announced the planned training for PPL awardees in a statement posted on X.
According to the commission, the training was intended to reduce the number of idle oil blocks resulting from awardees’ lack of commercial or technical capabilities.
Reacting to the announcement, some Nigerians took to the commission’s comment section on X to express concerns about the proposed training.
An X user identified as Tyro questioned the rationale behind the training.
"It is from the mundane ordinary things that you get to properly understand Nigeria. Drilling a deep water well costs at least $100m but here is the regulator inviting licence winners to come for a 2 day “training”. Who has $100m to spend (with no guarantee of success) and needs “training” on what to do next? From this we can infer the kind of people who have been awarded the licences", he wrote on X.
Another X user, identified as Peter, wrote:
"The main problem is that this ''training'' has been factored into one big budget proposal like that and must happen, it is part of the ecosystem. Same thing happen after elections, it is as if those in wigs must be paid to conclude the election circle".
Similarly, an X user identified as 1st Name Basis described the proposed training as an act of impunity.
He wrote, "This is one definition of impunity. Under normal circumstances, a government agency should be ashamed to make this kind of admission publicly. So what was the basis of winning the bid? Abnormal people!"
The criticism comes after 31 companies won oil and gas blocks in the NUPRC’s 2025 licensing round, which concluded in July 2026 amid controversy.
The commission has commenced a fresh 2026 licensing round, offering 40 oil blocks.
NUPRC faces backlash over ‘two-day training’ for oil block licence winners