Nigeria’s oil production falters as FG sets terms for bid round, licences

By : Kingsley Jeremiah, Waliat  Musa

Date: 15 January 2026 6:00am WAT

Share :

Oil workers on an oil rig. Source: Nairametrics

Oil workers on an oil rig. Source: Nairametrics

Nigeria’s crude oil production slipped in December, underperforming several Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) peers at a time when falling oil prices are compounding pressure on oil-dependent economies.

According to OPEC’s January 2026 Monthly Oil Market Report, Nigeria produced 1.422 million barrels per day (bpd) in December, down from 1.436 million bpd in November, a month-on-month decline of 14,000 bpd based on direct communication with member countries.

While modest in absolute terms, the decline is analytically significant as it interrupts a fragile recovery and less than about 400,000 bpd going by the benchmark in the 2026 budget.

While Nigeria struggled to meet the 2.06 million bpd in 2025, the production showed slight improvement in the year before, ending 2025 at 1.4 million bpd or less than over 600,000 bpd against the 2025 budget assumptions.

By contrast, several OPEC members recorded increases over the same period, including Saudi Arabia with an additional 34,000 bpd, Iraq 72,000 bpd, Kuwait 11,000 bpd and the UAE 10,000 bpd), showing Nigeria’s relative underperformance within the group.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has issued strict technical, financial and compliance requirements for bidders in Nigeria’s 2025 oil and gas licensing round, warning that only realistic proposals, adequately funded and executable, will be considered for awards.

The commission emphasised that bid evaluation would be based strictly on technical capability, financial strength and the ability to execute proposed work programmes, stressing that commitments made during the bidding process would be binding and form the basis for post-award regulatory oversight.

The Commission has also promised to deliver faster, predictable regulatory approvals, higher and more secure production, credible licensing, and world-class safety and governance standards as part of its 2025 oil and gas licensing pre-bid conference, signalling a major shift toward efficiency, accountability, and measurable outcomes in Nigeria’s upstream sector.

The bid terms were unveiled as the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, declared that Nigeria would no longer tolerate speculative acquisition of petroleum licences, stressing that oil and gas assets must not be treated as status symbols.

Lokpobiri said petroleum licences remained the property of the Federal Government and were issued strictly for development within defined timelines, noting that licences held without execution added no value to either investors or the Nigerian economy.

He said investors would only be taken seriously based on clear parameters, including technical competence, financial capacity and the ability to deliver on commitments made during the licensing process, warning that the era of holding assets for speculation “is gone forever” in Nigeria.

The minister also made it clear that the government would not entertain requests for refunds, asset exchanges or discretionary remedies after bids had been concluded, stressing that such practices were not provided for under Nigerian law.

Tags: