.As FG hands over licenses to winners
The Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday, presented Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPL) to 48 successful bidders of the Marginal Fields (MFs) in the 2020 bid round, Nigeria’s first successful Marginal Fields award in almost two decades with 161 winning bids in all, according to regulator.
‘’This will mark the conclusion of some of the most urgent and critical tasks inherited by the Commission when it was inaugurated in October 2021, after the signing into law of the PIA 2021,’’ the Commission Chief Executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe said before today’s event.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) made the presentation in fulfilment of the promise it made earlier in the year, and in pursuant to the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
The Commission had in March this year informed all the participants in the 2020 MF bid round programme that it has put all necessary machinery in place to progress the bid round exercise to conclusion in line with the PIA 2021.
Nigeria last hosted a bid round in 2001-2003 under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, through the now defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). A 2013 attempt under Goodluck Jonathan administration was not concluded and considered failed.
MFs are a portion of a discovered and licensed field that has been unattended to for a period not less than 10 years from date of first discovery. The field is then carved out from larger licensed area (OML), for allocation as MF to a successful bidder.
Nigeria earned about N2 trillion from the latest round (2020/2021), as each of the awardees paid a total of N48 billion for fees and bonuses to earn the licence. The N48 billion paid includes N500,000 for registration fee, N2 million application per field, N3 million for bid processing fee, data prying fee of $15, 000 per field, $25,000 was paid as data leasing fee among other fees.
