By EMMANUELLA ANOKAM

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has given 48 hours deadline to new investors for registration of the 2024 oil block licensing bid round.

Mr Gbenga Komolafe made this known on Wednesday at the 23^rd2024 Nigerian Oil and Gas Energy Conference (NOG) in Abuja themed Showcasing Opportunities, Driving Investment, Meeting Energy Demand.

Komolafe, in a presentation tagged Defining the Outlook for Deep Water Exploration and Production in Nigeria said the registration and submission of pre-qualification documents would close on July 5.

Registration closes at 12 midnight Friday, July 5, 2024, he said.

According to the CCE, announcement of licencing round, launch of bid portal and advertisement, which started on May 29, 2024, ended on May 10, 2024.

He said that technical and commercial bid submission including data access/data purchase/evaluation/bid, preparation and submission, technical bid, evaluation/publications of pre-qualified companies and commercial bid conference would begin Aug. 7 and end Dec. 13.

He said that ministerial consent, contracting and negotiation would start in Dec. 16 and end in Jan. 29, 2025.

He said that the total number of blocks were 31 while five blocks were under litigation.

Speaking on high impact achievements to optimise production, he said it conducted wide integrated study on the reactivation of shut-in strings in Nigeria to unlock 700 Million Barrel Per Day (MBOPD).

The CCE explained that approvals were granted for well interventions and re-entry operations with potential to develop greater than six MMB of oil and five Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of Gas.

He further said that the Field Development Plans for additional production was approved from four fields with peak potential of circa 125 Million Barrel Oil Per Day MBOPD.

He said It accelerated the approval and commissioning of four Alternative Crude Oil Evacuation Routes (ACOER) with a total combined capacity of about 250 MBOPD.

According to him, it has commenced the implementation of the drill or drop philosophy to optimise sustainable field development in line with petroleum Industry Act (PIA) provisions.

The commission has engaged the E&P Companies on unlocking about 57 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of uncommitted or unmonetised gas reserves.

We developed and unveiled a template guiding the activities for Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligation (DCSO) to ensure adequate and uninterrupted feedstock to all domestic refineries in Nigeria.

We have issued the annual Domestic Gas Delivery Obligation (DGDO) to all lessees to drive gas production growth, he said. (NAN)