As a sign of its willingness to allow oil firms to continue to operate existing oil mining leases (OMLs), the
Federal Government has directed operators to renew their expiring leases.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who dropped this hint, also confirmed that, while the government had identified up to 45 marginal oil fields it would put out for competitive bid this month, it was not in a hurry to issue out fresh oil blocks to new investors or operators in 2017.
Kachikwu, who spoke to select journalists at the just concluded 2017 edition of the annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston Texas, United States, disclosed that, the government had written to holders of all expiring OMLs to come forward and update their licences.
