The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, has warned that Petroleum Prospecting Licence, PPL, holders risk losing inactive assets under its drill-or-drop policy.
Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, the Commission Chief Executive, gave the warning on Tuesday in Lagos at a workshop for PPL holders.
Mrs Eyesan said that licence holders must fulfil their exploration and development obligations within the stipulated periods.
She stressed that extensions would not be automatic for operators unable to secure funding or technical partners.
She said the 22 awards from the 2022/2023 and 2024 licensing rounds were expected to contribute at least 250,000 barrels of oil production within five years.
The NUPRC chief executive said that the Commission would promote faster approvals and predictable regulation to attract investment into the upstream petroleum sector.
She expressed confidence that Nigeria could achieve its target of producing three million barrels of crude oil per day by 2030.
Earlier, Dr Shamsudeen Abubakar, Deputy Manager at NUPRC, said effective acreage management was essential to reducing dormant assets and ensuring operators met their commitments.
Mr Abubakar said the Commission monitored work programmes, drilling commitments and exploration activities to ensure the development of commercially viable petroleum resources.
Similarly, Dr Cyril Efre, Head of Work Programme and Performance Evaluation at NUPRC, said approved annual work programmes formed the basis for monitoring operators’ activities and compliance with licence conditions.
Efre urged licence holders to comply with submission and reporting requirements, noting that approved programmes enabled the Commission to assess planned activities and operators’ performance.
Mr Olalekan Abiola, Coordinating Director and Business Advisor at NUPRC, said licence holders needed adequate funding and technical expertise to develop their assets and bring them into production.
He said possessing a petroleum licence did not automatically translate into the capacity to develop an asset, urging operators to select partners based on their technical and financial needs.
The two-day workshop with the theme, “From Award to Production: Delivering Nigeria’s Upstream Petroleum Potential under the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021,”.
The forum is designed to acquaint licence holders with their regulatory obligations and post-award expectations.