The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has warned 31 companies that emerged winners of 37 oil and gas blocks in the 2025 Licensing Round to pay their signature bonuses within the stipulated period or risk losing their provisional awards.

The commission issued the warning exactly one month after it hosted the commercial bid conference in Abuja, where the successful companies emerged as winners of the available blocks.

In a notice seen on Sunday, the NUPRC said the process of compliance with the payment of signature bonuses had commenced following the issuance of provisional awards to the successful bidders.

“Exactly a month ago, the NUPRC hosted the 2025 commercial bid conference in Abuja where 31 companies emerged winners of 37 oil and gas blocks. Having issued the winners with the provisional awards, compliance with the payment of signature bonuses has already begun.

“Winners who fail to pay signature bonuses within the stipulated time frame in line with the Petroleum Industry Act will forfeit their bid guarantee and lose their provisional awards to the reserve bidders,” the NUPRC stated.

The 37 blocks offered in the licensing round comprise Petroleum Prospecting Licences covering the Niger Delta onshore, shallow water and deep offshore areas, as well as frontier basins.

Among the blocks are PPL 2A29 to PPL 2A62 in the Niger Delta, PPL 2010 in the deep offshore, PPL 308 in the Benin Basin, PPL 900 to PPL 903 in the Anambra Basin, PPL 700 in the Chad Basin and PPL 800 and PPL 801 in the Benue Trough.

The commission also published the names of the 31 successful companies and the ranked reserve bidders for each of the 37 blocks.

A total of 143 companies participated in the licensing round, submitting about 200 bids for the 37 blocks. However, 13 of the 50 blocks initially put up for bidding attracted no bids.

Under the Petroleum Industry Act and the applicable licensing guidelines, successful bidders are required to pay signature bonuses ranging from $3m to $7m per block.

They are also expected to provide the required guarantees, pay first-year rents and satisfy other post-award conditions within the prescribed period. Failure to meet the requirements will result in the automatic transfer of the affected award to the next-ranked reserve bidder, according to the NUPRC.

The commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, had earlier urged the successful bidders to make the required payments without delay and commence development of the awarded assets.

The NUPRC urged interested members of the public and stakeholders to visit the 2025 Licensing Round portal for further information on the awards and compliance requirements.

Under the PIA 2021 guidelines, winning bidders are required to pay their signature bonuses within a strict 90-day window. Since provisional award letters were issued immediately following the commercial bid conference on July 21, 2026, it means 30 days have already elapsed, and companies have 60 days left to remit the funds.

This shows that the regulator expects the signature bonuses to be paid on or before October 19, 2026.

If a winning company fails to complete the payment of its statutory signature bonus along with first-year rent within this 90-day window, the company automatically forfeits its bid guarantee. The provisional award will be revoked and immediately reassigned to the designated reserve bidder for the asset.