The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has identified additional oil blocks beyond the 12 initially made available for bidding.

The commission's Chief Executive Officer, Gbenga Komolafe disclosed this Tuesday at the pre-bid conference in Lagos.

Komolafe assured stakeholders of a fair and transparent bidding process.

Though 12 blocks were hitherto offered for bidding, the CEO was silent on the newly discovered blocks, saying, "The newly identified blocks will be added to the pool of blocks originally scheduled for the bid exercise, and their details will be made available on the bid round portal."

But he disclosed that in addition to the oil blocks, the seven deep offshore blocks from the 2022 mini-bid round exercise which cover an area of approximately 6,700 km2 in water depths of 1,150m to 3,100m shall also be concluded along with the licensing round.

According to him, the federal government is desirous of attracting local and foreign investors to participate in the bidding process.

He stated that each block has been chosen for its potential to bolster the national reserves and stimulate economic vitality.

Komolafe added that the commission's approach "is underpinned by the robust legal framework of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021(PIA), which ensures compliance with best practices to boost investors' confidence."

He further stated that the blocks on offer "have extensive 2D and 3D seismic data coverage, including multi-beam and analogue data. Additionally, a 3D reprocessed pre-stack time migration of remarkable quality is also available to prospective bidders.