Nigeria’s oil and gas sector may be on the brink of a shake-up as regulators and labour leaders push for reforms to unlock the country’s vast resources.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has completed a review of marginal oil field licences, with the final list of qualified companies now awaiting approval from the Minister of State for Petroleum.

Speaking at the Energy and Labour Summit in Abuja, NUPRC Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, said the exercise was guided by transparency and accountability under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

According to him, the Commission reviewed each field on a case-by-case basis, using a transparent scorecard system to determine which companies met the required milestones.

“If we say any awardee does not qualify for renewal, the evidence is clear, and the process is fair,” Komolafe explained.

He added that the Commission is also focused on increasing Nigeria’s oil output through its “Project One Million Barrels Per Day” initiative, targeting over 810,000 barrels per day from new offshore projects.

Labour Calls for Refinery Privatisation

At the same summit, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) urged the federal government to step away from direct ownership of Nigeria’s refineries.

PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, argued that the refineries should be run under a model similar to the Nigeria LNG (NLNG), where private firms hold a majority stake.

“Government should allow companies with the expertise to run the refineries while retaining minority shares,” Osifo said. “This will stop the cycle of repairing refineries today only for them to break down again in a few years.”

Reviving Dormant Oil Blocks

Osifo also stressed the need to revive oil fields that have been left idle for years despite companies holding licences.

“Nigeria has over 37 billion barrels of crude oil reserves. At our current pace of around two million barrels per day, it could take over 50 years to exploit these resources,” he warned. “We need to ramp up production to reap the benefits now.”

He further praised the current transparency drive in the industry, contrasting it with past practices where oil blocks were handed to political allies with little expertise.

The Road Ahead

The summit, themed “Building a Resilient Oil and Gas Sector in Nigeria: Advancing HSE, ESG, Investment, and Incremental Production”, highlighted the shared call for reform. With regulators focused on transparency and efficiency, and labour leaders pushing for refinery privatisation and oil block revival, Nigeria’s energy sector could be headed for a major reset.