<< Back             Poser >> FG threatens to withdraw licenses of dormant oil blocks By Udeme Akpan & Sebastine Obasi The Federal Government is set to revoke the licenses of some oil blocks in the country over delays in development of the oil blocks by the license holders. Confirming this yesterday at the Licensing Round Pre-bid Conference in Lagos, Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, added that there will be no refund of bid fee or signature bonus following the revocation. He stated further: “Licenses are no longer status symbol.   They belong to the government.   Every licensee must develop the assets within the given time frame. “Some licensees have held their licenses for 20 years without developing their assets. Such will not be tolerated any longer.” According to him, post-bid adjustment is not provided for in the bid round, as investors are cautioned to adhere strictly to the guidelines.   “Nigeria is a mature field. That’s why investors want to invest in the country’s hydrocarbon, “he added. Also speaking, Commission Chief Executive, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, stated that many of the blocks on offer were recovered through the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA. She said: “Nigeria should be seen as the preferred investment destination in Africa. It is noteworthy that the number of indigenous producers has increased appreciably.” She also explained that Nigerian banks are critical to Nigeria’s oil industry and enjoined investors to always liaise with them appropriately while embarking on the licensing round. A total of 50 blocks are on offer for bid, 16 onshore and 18 shallow water blocks are in the Niger Delta. Four onshore blocks, each, are in Anambra, Benue and Chad frontier basins, while one onshore block is in the Benin frontier basin. There is only one deep offshore block in the Niger Delta basin. Vanguard Business News	Nigeria loses $77.7bn to illicit financial flows in 10 years — Report By Yinka Kolawole A new report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a United States-based think tank, has revealed that Nigeria lost a total of $77.7 billion to trade-related illicit financial flows (IFFs) over a period of 10 years, between 2013 and 2022. IFFs refer to cross-border movements of money or value that are illegally earned, transferred, or […] Ghana records significant declines in oil liftings and petroleum revenue Ghana recorded a significant decline in its petroleum receipts for the second half of 2025, with total revenue dropping by approximately $117.38 million compared to the same period in 2024. Taxes, fuel hike slow business growth in January – NESG report As Business Confidence drops to 6-month low By Babajide Komolafe Rising taxes and fuel price adjustments slowed the pace of business growth in Nigeria in January 2026, pushing business confidence to a six-month low, according to the latest Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) report released by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). The report showed that the Current […] Businesses buckle under debt as defaults push bad loans to N21.2trn High interest rates, FX shocks, end of COVID forbearance trigger spike in corporate loan failures By Babajide Komolafe, Economy Editor At the backdrop of economic pressures on households and businesses, banks are now struggling with a rising loan defaults by businesses,  leading to a significant increase in bad loans portfolio of banks to N21.2 trillion. Financial Vanguard’s […] Dangote, NNPC seal strategic gas agreements By Udeme Akpan Towards meeting the energy demands of their ongoing expansion projects, three subsidiaries of Dangote Industries Limited, Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Dangote Fertiliser Plant and Dangote Cement Plc have scaled up their Gas Sales and Purchase Agreements (GSPA) with subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd): Nigerian Gas Marketing Limited and NNPC […] Stock market gains N6.7trn in January amid oil price surge  By Peter Egwuatu  The Nigerian stock market, last weekend, closed the first month of the year, 2026, with over N6.7 trillion capital gains, just as oil prices witnessed a surge last week to about  $71.01 per barrel. Analysts noted that the surge in crude price last week, if sustained, would be favourable to Nigeria, adding that […]