TheCable

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) says it will soon conclude the 2020 marginal field bid round programme.

The commission said it had put all necessary machinery to progress the bid round exercise to the conclusion in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

Marginal fields are smaller oil blocks developed by indigenous companies. They are often discovered on an IOC-owned block where there has been no activity in at least the last 10 years.

On May 31, the federal government awarded licence letters to successful investors for the development of 57 marginal oilfields.

The awards are expected to generate $500 million from signature bonuses for the federal government.

In a notice sent to participants in the programme on Tuesday, Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive officer (CEO) of NUPRC, indicated that an in-house work team has already been constituted to deal with outstanding issues.

The issues, he said, include distilling and addressing the concerns of awardees to close out issues affecting multiple awardees per asset and the formation of special purpose vehicles (SPV) by awardees in line with their respective award letters.

Komolafe enjoined awardees with the indicated issues to avail themselves of the resolution mechanism provided in the overriding national interest.

He also said that the NUPRC is collaborating with leaseholders to agree on transition mechanisms in line with the PIA and the aspirations of the government for the marginal field bid round exercise.

The NUPRC boss stated that the 45 days period for payment of signature bonus by successful awardees as stipulated in the marginal field guidelines has lapsed.

He assured those who have fully paid their signature bonuses that the commission would ensure that all applicable guidelines to enable them to progress to the next stage of the exercise are fully implemented.