Nigeria to reclaim oil licences left undeveloped
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on ThisDay
The Nigerian government intends to recover oil licences from operators who fail to develop their assets and reassign them to investors capable of exploiting them. Minister of State for Petroleum Heineken Lokpobiri is relying on provisions in Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act, ThisDay reports.
Nigeria will recover oil licences from holders who fail to develop them, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Heineken Lokpobiri said. The measure draws on the “drill-or-drop” provisions of Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act and is intended to enable the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to reassign the assets to investors able to bring them into production, according to interviews published by the NUPRC.
Heineken Lokpobiri said 50 assets had recently been offered for auction and that a new licensing round was being prepared. The policy requires oil and gas companies to develop their assets within the prescribed timeframes or relinquish their licences.
Minister of State for Gas Ekperikpe Ekpo called for Nigeria’s 215 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves to be converted into increased domestic supply, infrastructure and industrial growth over the next five years. Former Petroleum Minister and former NNPC chief executive Ibe Kachikwu, for his part, attributed some investment delays to government intervention and the complexity of approval procedures.
