According to NUPRC data, the deep offshore terrain accounts for the highest number of unlicensed blocks at 59, underscoring the underutilisation of Nigeria’s most technically advanced but capital-intensive oil frontier. The Benue Trough follows with 41 open blocks, Chad Basin with 40, Sokoto Basin with 28, and Bida Basin with 16. Even the mature and historically productive Niger Delta region still holds several idle assets, including seven open blocks offshore and eight onshore.
Despite recent licensing rounds in 2022/2023 and 2024, which saw 24 blocks awarded, much of Nigeria’s vast hydrocarbon potential remains dormant. The NUPRC acknowledged the successes of landmark projects such as Shell’s Bonga, Chevron’s Agbami, and TotalEnergies’ Egina and Akpo, but noted these are outliers in an otherwise underdeveloped deepwater landscape.
The commission attributed the slow uptake in deepwater exploration to high costs, technological complexity, and infrastructure limitations. As of January 2025, the deepwater terrain accounted for 19% of Nigeria’s oil reserves and 12% of its gas reserves — a stark indicator of the country’s production-performance gap.
Energy analysts say this gap is widening at a critical time. With oil revenues still serving as the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, the abundance of idle assets is contributing to dwindling national income, forcing the government to rely more heavily on borrowing. As of March 31, 2025, Nigeria’s public debt stood at N149.39 trillion — up from N121.67 trillion a year earlier — driven by new loans and the weakening naira inflating external obligations.
Meanwhile, local refineries continue to face severe feedstock shortages. The Dangote refinery, Africa’s largest, reported importing up to 10 million barrels of crude oil from the United States in July alone due to the unavailability of sufficient local supply.
In response, the NUPRC is advocating for a nodal or cluster development strategy aimed at aggregating smaller discoveries for joint development, especially in underexplored frontier basins. However, its planned 2025 licensing bid round has yet to be launched.
Beyond the 220 open blocks, Nigeria is also home to over three billion barrels of crude locked in licensed but undeveloped oilfields. In April, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, issued a stern warning: operators who fail to develop their blocks could face revocation.
“We cannot continue to have assets sitting idle for 20 to 30 years without development,” he said. “Such assets add no value to their holders or to the nation. We urge collaboration — farm-outs, shared infrastructure, and transfer of dormant blocks to operators ready to invest.”
Lokpobiri also called on international oil companies (IOCs) to increase investment in upstream activities, especially as more refineries are set to come online and will require steady crude supply. He stressed that ramping up local production is vital not just for energy security but also for stabilising the economy and reducing the country’s reliance on imports.
Despite the untapped potential, Nigeria’s oil sector remains at a crossroads — caught between vast natural wealth, investor hesitation, and the urgent need for structural reform.
