Eyesan therefore urged investors to look towards Nigeria by taking advantage of the 2026 Licensing Round which has 40 oil and gas blocks on offer. She also disclosed that the licensing round portal will officially open on November 20, 2026.
The NUPRC boss said this during a roundtable discussion titled: ‘Energy Sovereignty in an Interconnected World: Aligning National Priorities, Markets and Global Security’ at the 2026 ADIPEC Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday, November 2, 2026.
A statement by the NUPRC Head of Media and Corporate Communications, Eniola Akinkuotu, quoted Eyesan as saying that with a very attractive fiscal framework for investors, she was expecting to see even more interest in the new licensing round.
She said: “We are expecting investors to turn to Nigeria. We are going in for another licensing round and we will be launching our bid portal on November 20. We expect to see interested investors because the environment is a lot more competitive.
“We have set a very attractive fiscal framework for investors. The entire environment is a lot more secure. We have been able to manage costs with a lot of incentives for investors and we expect to see investors take up the offer when we open the portal.”
The NUPRC chief noted that since the passing of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021 as well as the executive orders signed by President Bola Tinubu, Nigeria has seen an improvement in its investment climate.
Eyesan stated that between 2021 and 2026, the NUPRC had held at least four successful licensing rounds which had brought in more investments into the country. This, she said, is a departure from the pre-PIA era where licensing rounds were not frequent.
The NURPC chief executive said that Nigeria possesses huge energy potential as it sits on 215 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of gas, butcould barely produce 7 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) daily.
According to her, the situation presents an opportunity to investors, especially as key gas infrastructure projects are in the pipeline.
She added: “The stars are already aligned. For gas infrastructure we just completed very major infrastructure projects that will unlock gas supply in the country and the sub-region.
“We talk about two major projects on the drawing board to move gas through the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic Gas Pipeline and Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline. Again, this gas will go somewhere in Europe and will also meet regional demands. So, Nigeria is positioned to meet not just domestic supply,” the CCE stated.
Eyesan maintained that with many countries discovering petroleum resources, the race for investments has become even more competitive.
She said Nigeria was already ahead of the game as it had made certain modifications in order to attract the right capital.
She explained: “We understand that investors will price execution risk, cost, delays and also uncertainty and so what we have done in Nigeria is to ensure that we guard against these risks and then attract the investment required to enable us unlock the huge resources we sit on.”
Emmanuel Addeh
