19 more oil blocs to expire in 2019

Nineteen more oil blocs in Nigeria face expiration in 2019, investigation by New Telegraph has revealed. Already, 28 blocs had expired as at last quarter of 2016. But a document of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), sighted by this newspaper, showed that this would raise the number of expired oil blocs in the country to 47 by next year.

Nigeria, the document showed, had 392 blocs out of which 208 blocs are open. “Seventy-five of the blocs are Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPLs) while 109 of the blocs are Oil Mining Lease (OMLs),” the docu-ment stated.

A former Deputy Director of DPR, Sunday Adebayo Babalola, who confirmed the figure to New Telegraph, declared that 28 oil blocs had already expired as at 2016, when he left the agency.

“Twenty-four of these blocs are Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPLs) while the remaining four expired blocs are Oil Mining Leases (OMLs). “While 47 OMLs will ex-pire in less than five years, 27 OPLs will also be due for renewal in less than five years,” he said.

New Telegraph, February 20, 2018

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