The federal government says Nigeria’s mini-bid round will boost global energy sufficiency in the long run.

Gbenga Komolafe, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission CEO, said this at a pre-bid conference in Lagos on Monday. He said this year’s mini-bid rounds, the first in the last 15 years, were expected to auction seven Deep Offshore blocks.

Mr Komolafe added that the mini bid round also covered an area of approximately 6,700 km2 in water depths of 1,150m to 3,100m. He said the exercise was expected to be a huge success for Nigeria and a big step towards growing the nation’s oil and gas reserves through aggressive exploration and development efforts.

The NUPRC boss said the exercise would also boost production and expand opportunities for gas utilisation and development. According to him, the bid round will strengthen energy security and the economy, providing the opportunity to gainfully engage the pool of competent companies in the oil and gas sector.

He said this would result in employment opportunities, enable the transfer of technology, valorising petroleum assets in the Nigerian territory, and attracting investments.

“In addition, the mini-bid round presents us with the opportunity to reinforce Nigeria’s commitment to openness and transparency in line with the principles of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI),” stated Mr Komolafe.

The NUPRC chief assured that the process would be fair, transparent, and competitive in line with best practices and added that it would attract competent investors from across the world, both local and foreign, that had the capability and competence to operate in the deep water environment. 

(NAN)