How NUPRC Is Restoring Confidence in Nigeria’s Oil Sector in 6 Months

Six months after taking over as Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan has set one clear goal: make Nigeria’s upstream sector predictable, efficient, and attractive again.

The early results suggest it is working. Production is up, investors are returning, and the regulator is being seen differently — not as a bottleneck, but as a partner

Eyesan came to NUPRC after 30 years at NNPC. She served as Executive Vice President Upstream, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, and led the team that doubled NNPC subsidiary production from 150,000 to 300,000 barrels per day. She also negotiated the closure of a decade-long PSC dispute.

That background matters. She knows the industry from the operator’s side — the delays, the costs, the uncertainty. She walked into NUPRC with a clear view of how the commission was perceived outside, and what needed to change inside.

“The Petroleum Industry Act gave us the legal framework,” she said in her first address. “What we needed now was predictable regulation, faster decisions, stronger governance, and credibility that turns policy on paper into market confidence.”

She set three pillars on day one: production optimisation and revenue growth, regulatory predictability and speed, and safe, well-governed, sustainable operations.

The numbers for June 2026 offer the clearest proof. Combined crude oil and condensate output hit 1.735 million barrels per day. That is 104% of Nigeria’s OPEC quota of 1.5 million bpd, and the highest crude figure since April 2020.

The month-on-month trend is just as important: 1.62 million bpd in January, 1.48 million in February, 1.54 million in March, 1.66 million in April, 1.7 million in May, and 1.735 million in June. NUPRC attributes the rise to operational stability, completed maintenance, and no major infrastructure outages.

Gas is also growing. Output reached 7.93 billion cubic feet per day in May, up from 7.88 bcf/d a year earlier. For the first time, non-associated gas at 3.98 bcf/d edged past associated gas — a sign that dedicated gas projects are coming online. Domestic gas sales hit a record 2.18 bcf/d. Flaring dropped to 0.57 bcf/d, or 6.9% of total production, keeping Nigeria on track for its 2030 commitment to end routine flaring.

“For me, this is not only a production story,” Eyesan said. “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.”

The 2025 licensing round closed with strong numbers, but the quality of participants was more telling. Beyond Nigerian indigenous companies, there was significant interest from international oil companies and, for the first time in years, real participation from international independents. These are the players with frontier capital and deepwater expertise who have often preferred other countries with more accommodating regulation.

“The level of participation tells me people have faith in the industry,” Eyesan said. “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.”

For the 2026 round, NUPRC is deliberately targeting more international independents. Local firms are gaining experience in shallow water, but deepwater requires capital and technical capacity that Nigeria must attract deliberately.

Two months into her tenure, Eyesan launched the CCE-Operators Leadership Forum. Every month, NNPC, OPTS, IPPG and emerging players sit with the commission to review approval timelines, production restoration, and infrastructure integrity. For an industry used to a distant regulator, the forum signals a new relationship.

The commission is also digitising everything — correspondence, permitting, reporting, and financial systems. A 90-day programme to fast-track near-ready field development plans, well interventions and rig mobilisations was one of her first moves.

In March, NUPRC signed the PEL5 agreement with SeaSeis and TGS to acquire new 3D seismic across 11,700 square kilometres offshore the Eastern Niger Delta, in water depths of 400 to 2,800 metres. It is some of Nigeria’s most prospective but complex acreage. The goal is to give investors high-quality data so they can make decisions with confidence.

“Exploration is fundamentally driven by confidence in data and processes,” Eyesan said at the signing. “PEL5 is about making the subsurface case for Nigeria’s offshore as compelling as it can be.”

Regulatory duplication is also being tackled. NUPRC is working with the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority to harmonise overlapping requirements. The plan is a single-window approach where operators submit data once instead of paying multiple fees to different agencies.

“When you have multiple laws, you will likely have higher costs because each law comes with its own fees,” Eyesan noted. “The only way to safeguard investments is to reduce the cost of operating here.

Credibility is showing up in unexpected places. In June, the National Bureau of Statistics visited NUPRC to commend its transparency in oil and gas data. The Statistician-General said without NUPRC’s data, the NBS cannot effectively release GDP figures. That kind of institutional trust is exactly what the commission is trying to rebuild.

On climate, NUPRC has directed all upstream operators to move to measurement-based methane and GHG reporting by January 2027. This shifts the sector from estimates to verified, science-based emissions data, in line with Nigeria’s net-zero target for 2060 and 60% methane reduction by 2035. For international investors focused on climate, credible MRV systems are now a prerequisite.

Service-level agreements, promised in December, are also being finalised. For the first time, NUPRC will publish formal, time-bound commitments on how quickly it will process applications and respond to industry. Eyesan believes this will do more for investor confidence than any speech.

Eyesan keeps returning to one issue: human capacity. After the PIA, investment slowed and the pipeline of technical talent shrank.

“Growing production is not only about acreage and capital,” she said. “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

The presidential mandate is clear: 2 million bpd by 2027, 3 million by 2030. Eyesan treats it as an engineering problem, not a political slogan.

“We are rushing against time,” she said. “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.”

On her first day, Eyesan said success would be measured not by the volume of policy, but by outcomes for Nigerians. Six months in, those outcomes are visible: higher production, renewed investor interest, better data, and a regulator that is meeting with industry monthly instead of hiding behind process.

The targets remain: faster approvals, more secure production, credible licensing, world-class safety, and trusted governance. There is still work to do. But for the first time in years, the upstream regulator and the industry appear to be moving in the same direction