Nigeria plans for oil licensing round this year

Nigeria still hopes to have an oil licensing round for marginal fields before the end of this year, the oil minister told Reuters on Tuesday. “We sincerely hope to have a new round this year, for marginal fields,” Diezani Alison-Madueke said on the sidelines of the annual Nigerian Economic Summit in the capital Abuja, declining to speak further. Diezani said in October the government planned to hold bidding rounds for major and marginal fields before the year is up, but there has been no movement on them since. She is also in licence renewal talks with Shell and Chevron over existing onshore fields, after ExxonMobil signed a renewal earlier this year.