By Bassey Udo
The newly appointed Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, has unveiled her vision for the transformation of the country’s upstream petroleum sector.
The vision, Eyesan explained, was anchored on three pillars namely production optimization and revenue expansion; regulatory predictability and speed, and safe, governed and sustainable operations.
The NUPRC boss who unveiled her agenda on Wednesday at a stakeholder meeting in Lagos, said this aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the plan of the administration to hit a production target of 2 million barrels of oil per day (mmbopd) by 2027 and 3mmbopd by 2030.
The meeting was attended by members of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), emerging players and other major stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
The NUPRC boss said her plan was to increase the country’s oil and gas production capacity as well as ensure revenue expansion through the recovery of shut-in volumes in the country’s oil fields with economic value, arresting decline, reducing losses, and accelerating time-to-first oil without increasing burdens or transaction cost.
The realization of these plans, she said, had already begun by recently “turning on the light” in a long shut-in oil and gas assets in the country.
Mrs. Eyesan said her plan to achieve regulatory predictability and speed could be realised by running regulation like a service, enforcing rules transparently and making quick time-bound decisions in its operations.
The new NUPRC boss said she also planned to strengthen governance, process safety, host community outcomes, and encourage decarbonisation through safe, governed and sustainable operations.
“Going forward, the Commission will be measured on the following key success metrics, namely faster, predictable regulatory approvals, higher, more secure and sustainable production, credible licensing rounds and disciplined acreage performance, world-class Health, Safety and Environment activities and process safety outcomes, trusted measurement, transparency, governance and data integrity,” she said.
Mrs. Eyesan promised that under her leadership, the NUPRC would enhance regulatory efficiency and predictability by publishing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for all major approvals.
The timeline to production, she said, would be reduced through proactive discussions regarding all necessary approvals, implementation of stage-gate processes, and mutual agreement on timelines with the Commission.
She said stakeholders were encouraged to submit their projects for consideration, while matured opportunities are expected to submit their requests latest end of the first quarter of 2026, to provide a simplified and holistic framework that creates obligations for both operators and the Commission.
The Commission, the Commission CE said, would soon launch a digital workflow for permitting, reporting and data submissions, adding that the NUPRC would continue to work with the industry to identify capacity gaps; develop tiered intervention in the most critical areas with immediate impact on regulatory efficiency, while harmonizing its internal processes to eliminate conflicting regulatory actions and reduce friction.
The NUPRC’s internal transformation programme through a project Management office, she said, was in flight, assuring that more details would be provided in the coming days.
Besides, the NUPRC boss said the Commission would convene a “CCE–Operators Leadership Forum for monthly engagements with industry operators.
The participants in the monthly forum, she said, would include all operators (including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, OPTS, IPPG, and emerging industry players.
The meeting, she said, would be focused on approval timelines, production restoration, infrastructure integrity, and gas monetisation and development, to enable the NUPRC to identify systemic bottlenecks and provide greater predictability.
Mrs. Eyesan also stressed the need to improve hydrocarbon accounting and measurement by tracking every barrel produced and promptly addressing discrepancies or losses.
On host community, Mrs Eyesan said the NUPRC would encourage all industry operators to liaise with the Commission as it plans to host the first engagement with host community leaders to reaffirm commitment to Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) implementation.
In addition, she said one of her key goals would be to ensure 100% implementation of the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act within 12 months, which would be monitored with a dedicated team domiciled in her office.
“The Commission, going forward, will issue quarterly progress reports. Let’s therefore bring all high impact shut-in fields for approval.
“On the Commission’s part, a 90-day programme to fast track approvals for near-ready field development programmes (FDPs), well interventions, rig mobilisation and other quick-win opportunities have commenced,” the CCE said.
