August 23, 2025
By Ayinde Adeleke
President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Comrade Festus Osifo, has commended the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Engineer Gbenga Komolafe, for ensuring transparency in the recently concluded oil bid round.
Speaking on the development, Osifo noted that past licensing rounds were often influenced by political considerations, with oil blocks awarded to individuals who lacked the technical expertise or financial capacity to develop them.
“Before now, what they used to do was to give oil blocks to big politicians who didn’t have expertise on how to develop them. That was why over the years, people were given licences and they kept it under their beds. Either they didn’t have the technical competence or the financial muscle to develop those fields. But the one that was done recently was very very transparent,” he said.
The PENGASSAN President added that the transparency demonstrated in the exercise sets a new standard for the industry and reflects positively on Nigeria’s commitment to global best practices in oil and gas governance.
