The Oil and Gas Professionals Forum has doubled down on allegations that Nigeria’s recent marginal field licensing round was compromised by conflicts of interest involving the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
In a detailed rebuttal issued over the weekend, forum convener Ayodele Momoh rejected NNPCL’s official response to earlier accusations, describing it as misleading and diversionary. The state-owned oil company had released a statement on Saturday exonerating its Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, from wrongdoing while highlighting production growth figures under his tenure.
Momoh insisted that at least two of the 37 oil blocks awarded to 31 winning companies in the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s just-concluded bid round went to close associates of Ojulari. The forum further alleged that Ojulari’s wife, who holds a position at NUPRC, played a significant role in the evaluation process that led to those awards.
According to OGPF, one of the awardees is also the first beneficiary of a Funding and Technical Services Agreement granted by NNPCL since Ojulari assumed leadership. The group said NNPCL’s defence failed to address core questions about the identities of beneficiaries, potential conflicts of interest, and the transparency of the bid process.
NNPCL had cited a 6 percent increase in oil production and a 5 percent rise in gas output between April 2025 and August 2026 as evidence of effective stewardship. OGPF dismissed those figures as peripheral to the governance concerns raised, arguing that performance metrics do not resolve accountability questions surrounding the licensing round.
“The performance narrative does not answer the accountability question,” the forum stated. “Where relationships and roles intersect in bid evaluation and awards, the outcome raises legitimate questions of conflict of interest and private gain that cannot be wished away through rhetorical framing.”
The group also challenged the pace of production growth relative to NNPCL’s stated target of three million barrels per day within two years, characterising the reported progress of approximately 80,000 barrels as insufficient grounds for celebration.
Neither NNPCL nor NUPRC has issued a further response to the forum’s latest allegations. The dispute underscores persistent concerns over transparency in Nigeria’s oil asset allocation process, even as the government seeks to attract investment and boost output through revised regulatory frameworks.
