Minister Lauds Upstream Regulator’s Progress In 4 Years

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has spotlighted important advancements by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) arsenic the Commission marks 4 years of operations.

Senator Heineken said this erstwhile the commission’s main executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe led a apical absorption delegation to the minister’s bureau connected the sidelines of the NUPRC’s day connected October 21, 2025.

Lokpobiri emphasised the agency’s captious relation successful driving maturation and stableness successful Nigeria’s upstream lipid and state assemblage and called for sustained absorption and collaboration to physique connected the progress.

Lokpobiri stated, “The NUPRC is conscionable 4 years old, yet it has exhibited the qualities of an instauration with decades of experience. The advancement made is singular and shows the dedication of Engr. Komolafe and his team.”

He added, “Our rig number has soared from 8 successful 2021 to 69 today. This intelligibly indicates that capitalist assurance is returning, and the upstream assemblage is waking up.” The curate credited the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, for providing the regulatory model that has enabled this turnaround. “The PIA has brought stableness to the lipid sector; it has created a predictable situation for investors, and the NUPRC has consistently been astatine the forefront of enforcing these regulations.”

Highlighting NUPRC’s transparency initiatives, Lokpobiri praised the digitisation of licensing and unfastened bidding processes. “We person eliminated galore of the shadows that utilized to unreality the licensing rounds,” the curate said.

“With NEITI’s endorsement and African countries looking up to the NUPRC arsenic a model, Nigeria is mounting standards successful upstream regulation.” He besides noted, “The instauration of the African Petroleum Regulatory Forum nether NUPRC’s coordination is simply a arrogant milestone, aiming to unify Africa’s dependable connected vigor and beforehand just concern crossed the continent.”

The curate drew attraction to Nigeria’s expanding accumulation capacity, affirming, “When I took office, our accumulation hovered astir 1 cardinal barrels per day. Today, we nutrient betwixt 1.7 and 1.8 cardinal barrels. This is progress, but we indispensable not go complacent.”

He underscored the value of reducing accumulation costs, stating, “President Bola Tinubu’s enforcement orders person helped bring down costs, making Nigeria much competitory globally.”

He remarked connected the relation of section operators, “Our indigenous producers are proving that they tin deliver. Renaissance has added implicit 60,000 barrels per time since acquiring Shell’s assets, and Seplat has accrued accumulation by 40,000 barrels aft acquiring ExxonMobil’s portfolio. This shows the spot and capableness of our section companies.”

On assemblage relations, Minister Lokpobiri added, “The absorption of the Host Community Trust Fund by NUPRC has helped reconstruct bid successful the Niger Delta, which is indispensable for uninterrupted accumulation and determination development.”

Lokpobiri called connected the committee to support momentum: “We person made important strides, but this is simply a journey. It requires continued focus, collaboration, and a committedness to transparency and growth. Together, we volition proceed to unlock Nigeria’s immense upstream imaginable for the payment of our system and people.

Commission boss, Engr. Komolafe, successful his submission, described the day arsenic a peculiar infinitesimal successful the past of the Commission and added that the achievements recorded are a merchandise of the enactment of President Bola Tinubu, arsenic good arsenic enactment from the Minister of State for Oil.The NUPRC brag thanked the curate for his enactment and enactment successful the regulatory activities of the Commission.

He reiterated that arsenic portion of its mandate, the Commission has functioned arsenic a concern enabler and accidental marketer successful the upstream sector.”Honourable Minister, we person done this diligently successful collaboration with my team. We person been capable to grounds a fig of high-impact achievements; reconstruct investors’ assurance and stabilise the manufacture regulatory-wise.

“We person been capable to reintroduce ‘certainty and predictability’ into regulatory activities successful the industry. We person been capable to make and gazette 24 forward-looking regulations which are the tools by which we modulate the manufacture successful a precise predictable absorption that for present has earned america investors’ confidence, dissimilar wherever we took up from,” said Engr. Komolafe.

The CCE shared different scorecards of the NUPRC pursuing the transition of the PIA, 2021.He noted that the Commission had delivered 19 world-class regulations that had fixed beingness to the PIA.