The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has confirmed that Nigeria currently has 220 abandoned oil blocks, largely due to the country’s mounting debt and persistent crude production challenges. As of August 2025, the NUPRC highlighted that these undeveloped blocks, spread across onshore and offshore basins including 59 in the deep offshore and 41 in the Benue Trough, remain unexploited amid a national debt exceeding N149 trillion in Q1 2025 and ongoing issues like pipeline vandalism, oil theft, and underinvestment. The commission noted that over three billion barrels of oil are locked in these idle fields, with some licensed assets failing to progress despite threats from the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources to revoke them. This situation underscores a critical tension between Nigeria’s vast hydrocarbon potential and its economic and operational hurdles.
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