Six months after taking over the leadership of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan is beginning to put her stamp on an institution central to Nigeria’s ambition of restoring oil production, attracting investment and strengthening regulatory credibility, writes Emmanuel Addeh
A Different Kind of Licensing Round
The success of Nigeria’s 2025 licensing round cannot be measured only by the number of bids received but also by the quality of entities which participated.
Alongside Nigerian indigenous companies, the exercise attracted significant interest from International Oil Companies (IOCs) and, for the first time, meaningful participation from international independents.
Without doubt, these companies bring deepwater expertise, frontier capital and global operating experience, having traditionally favoured jurisdictions with more predictable regulatory environments.
For the NUPRC Commission Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, the participation itself sends a strong message. “The level of participation tells me people have faith in the industry,” she says. “Not just Nigerian companies, IOCs and International Independents. That is a signal. The question now is whether we build on it and that depends entirely on whether the regulatory environment continues to move in the direction we have set,” she adds.
Increasing Production
The commission believes recent production figures reinforce that confidence. Nigeria’s upstream production data for June 2026 showed combined crude oil and condensate output of 1.735 million barrels per day, representing 104 per cent of the country’s Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude production quota of 1.5 million barrels per day and the highest production level recorded since April 2020.
The steady improvement over recent months has been attributed by the commission to improved operational stability, successful completion of scheduled maintenance activities and the absence of major infrastructure disruptions.
Gas production has also continued to strengthen. Output reached 7.93 billion cubic feet per day in May, compared with 7.88 bcf/d recorded in the corresponding period of 2025 and 7.95 bcf/d produced in June. For the first time, in May Non-associated Gas production, at 3.98 bcf/d, slightly exceeded associated gas production, reflecting growing investment in dedicated gas projects.
Besides, in May domestic gas supply climbed to a record 2.18 bcf/d, while gas flaring declined to 0.57 bcf/d, representing 6.9 per cent of total production, in line with Nigeria’s commitment to eliminate routine gas flaring by 2030.
For Eyesan, the figures represent something beyond production growth. “This is not only a production story. It is a story about an industry beginning to serve the country it sits inside, more gas reaching Nigerian homes, Nigerian industry, Nigerian power. The numbers matter. What they represent matters more,” she enthuses.
From Operator to Regulator
Eyesan assumed office after three decades with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), where she served as Executive Vice President, Upstream, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer and previously led efforts that doubled one of the company’s upstream subsidiaries’ production from 150,000 barrels per day to 300,000 barrels per day. She also played a central role in resolving the long-running Production Sharing Contract dispute.
That operational background provided a clear understanding of the concerns investors and operators have about regulatory systems.
Although the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) established a modern legal framework for the industry, she recognised that legislation alone would not transform the sector. What remained was the need to build predictable regulation, quicker decision making, stronger governance and institutional credibility capable of translating policy into investor confidence.
“Policy is only relevant in a functional industry,” she told the sector in her first address as chief executive. “Effective policy relies on a robust industry. And steering the sector towards strength, resilience, and forward-thinking progress depends on collective participation,” Eyesan says.
Three Strategic Priorities
Those objectives have been driven through three priorities introduced immediately after she assumed office: production optimisation and revenue growth, regulatory predictability and speed, and safe, well-governed, sustainable operations.
One of the earliest initiatives was the establishment of the CCE-Operators Leadership Forum, bringing together NNPC Limited, the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) and other operators every month to review approval timelines, production restoration efforts and infrastructure integrity.
The commission has also accelerated its digital transformation programme, covering correspondence, permitting, reporting and financial systems, while introducing a 90-day programme to fast-track field development plans, well interventions and rig mobilisation.
Unlocking New Exploration
The commission has also focused attention on expanding Nigeria’s future resource base. In March, it signed the PEL5 agreement with SeaSeis Geophysical Limited and TGS to undertake broadband 3D seismic acquisition across 11,700 square kilometres offshore the Eastern Niger Delta, covering water depths of between 400 and 2,800 metres.
The survey is expected to generate higher-quality geological data to support future exploration and investment decisions.
“Exploration is fundamentally driven by confidence in data and processes,” Eyesan said at the signing. “PEL5 is about ensuring that the subsurface case for Nigeria’s offshore acreage is made as compellingly as it can be and that investors have the data quality they need to make decisions with confidence,” she added.
Lowering Cost of Regulation
For the NUPRC, reducing regulatory bottlenecks has become another key focus. The commission is working with the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) to harmonise overlapping regulatory requirements through a single-window approach that would eliminate duplicate submissions across government agencies.
“When you have multiple laws, you will likely have higher costs because each law comes with its own fees and charges,” Eyesan says. “The only way to safeguard investments is to reduce the cost of operating here,” she emphasises.
Building Institutional Credibility
Efforts to strengthen transparency have also attracted recognition. During a visit to the commission in June, the Statistician General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, commended NUPRC for improving transparency in oil and gas data publication and acknowledged the importance of the commission’s data to the compilation of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product statistics.
For a regulator seeking to build investor confidence, such recognition reinforces its efforts to improve institutional credibility.
Beyond Current Output
Nigeria’s production targets of 2 million barrels per day by 2027 and 3 million barrels per day by 2030 remain central to the commission’s agenda.
The commission believes achieving those targets will require attracting more international investment, particularly into deepwater developments where capital requirements and technical complexity remain high.
“We are rushing against time,” she says. “If we are serious about ramping up production, we cannot rely solely on in-country resources. We need to bring in people who have done this at scale internationally and be honest about whether our processes are designed to attract them,” she explains.
The commission adds that it is therefore positioning the 2026 licensing round to attract greater participation from international independent operators while indigenous companies continue expanding their presence in shallow water assets.
Climate and Governance
The regulatory reforms extend beyond production. The NUPRC has directed upstream operators to migrate to measurement-based methane and greenhouse gas reporting by January 2027, replacing estimation-based reporting with verified scientific measurements.
The initiative supports Nigeria’s net zero target for 2060, its commitment to reduce methane emissions by 60 per cent by 2035 and its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) obligations under the Paris Agreement. It also strengthens the Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework increasingly required by climate-conscious investors.
The commission is also finalising service level agreements that will publicly define regulatory timelines and establish formal performance commitments to industry participants.
Investing in People
Beyond regulation, the the industry’s long-term success depends on rebuilding technical capacity.
“In the years following the PIA, the industry contracted. Investment pulled back, activity slowed, and the pipeline of people being built for the sector’s technical and operational demands shrank. Growing production is not only about acreage and capital.
“It is about the people who can execute at the level this ambition requires. The commission has a role in rebuilding that pipeline and intends to play it with the same seriousness we bring to everything else,” she points out.
Work in Progress
When Eyesan assumed office, she said her performance would be judged not by the number of policies introduced but by measurable outcomes for Nigerians.
Six months later, rising production, renewed investor interest, stronger stakeholder engagement, improved transparency and ongoing regulatory reforms suggest that progress is being made.
Although Cpchallenges remain, particularly as Nigeria pursues ambitious production targets, but the commission’s focus on predictability, accountability and institutional credibility is gradually reshaping perceptions of the country’s upstream oil and gas sector.
With the current momentum driven by the upstream regulator, Nigeria’s capacity to compete for global upstream investment in the years ahead, might just be on the right track.
