In a bid to ramp up oil production and meet its 2025 budgetary and OPEC targets, the Federal Government on Tuesday declared that the era of oil companies acquiring field licenses without developing them is over.
Speaking at the 2025 Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week in Abuja, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, warned that licenses held by operators lacking the technical and financial capacity to develop oil fields will be revoked.
“In our ongoing drive to boost national oil production, the Federal Government remains resolute in ensuring that maximum value is derived from upstream assets currently held by operators,” Lokpobiri said.
The minister noted that with global financing for oil and gas projects tightening, Nigeria can no longer afford to allow vital national resources to lie fallow or be used by companies as leverage to raise funds for unrelated ventures.
“It is no longer acceptable for critical national resources to remain in the hands of companies that lack the technical or financial capacity to optimize them or worse, those who use such licenses merely as a lever to access scarce capital, only to divert it to unrelated ventures,” he said. “Our oil and gas industry has witnessed far too many cautionary tales of this nature, and we must now draw a clear line.”
Lokpobiri revealed that the government has engaged an international consultant to evaluate 273 fees and rates imposed on oil companies operating in Nigeria with a view to aligning them with global standards.
Also speaking at the conference, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, said Nigeria’s proven gas reserves exceed 200 trillion cubic feet, but stressed that value can only be unlocked through active development and utilisation.
Ekpo highlighted the goals of the Decade of Gas initiative, including industrialisation, expanded power generation, increased domestic LPG adoption, promotion of gas-for-transport, and growth in gas export capacity.
Meanwhile, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd., Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari, announced that the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline has successfully crossed the River Niger, raising hopes of completing the project by Q4 2025.
“This is a significant milestone, achieved through effective and innovative contract reengineering and industry collaboration,” Ojulari stated.
He further revealed that, for the first time in a long while, Nigeria recorded 100% availability of its crude oil pipelines throughout June 2025, attributing the development to coordinated security interventions spearheaded by NNPC Ltd.
Ojulari called for sustained investment in oil and gas infrastructure and noted that NNPC has consistently met its cash-call obligations to joint venture partners, positioning it to lead project financing under the new framework of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
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