Nigeria TV Info 

NNPCL secures N318bn to fund new oil exploration.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has secured a total of ₦318.05 billion between January and August 2025 to fund frontier oil exploration across Nigeria's inland basins. This funding is derived from the statutory 30% deductions of Production Sharing Contract (PSC) profits, as mandated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021. Documents from the September 2025 Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting reveal that these deductions were consistently applied despite fluctuations in PSC profits, which totaled ₦1.06 trillion in the first eight months of 2025, falling short of the budgeted ₦1.58 trillion .

The Frontier Exploration Fund, established under the PIA, ensures that 30% of PSC profits are dedicated to exploration in underexplored basins, including Anambra, Bida, Sokoto, Dahomey, Chad, and Benue. Regulations direct the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to manage the fund through an escrow account and produce an annual Frontier Basin Exploration and Development Plan. In July 2025, the NUPRC unveiled its exploration roadmap, highlighting seismic surveys, stress-field detection, data integration, and new drilling activities, such as the logging and testing of the Eba-1 well in Dahomey, a new wildcat drilling in Bida, reappraisal of Wadi wells in Chad, and the reassignment of Ebeni-1 drilling in Benue .

Despite these efforts, industry experts have expressed concerns over the allocation. Ademola Adigun, CEO of AHA Strategies, criticized the 30% allocation as "unrealistic and too high," suggesting that it is not justifiable under prevailing economic conditions. He recommended that the frontier allocation be cut drastically, proposing that it should not exceed 10% .

Additionally, labor unions such as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have warned that the government's plans to divest significant stakes in Joint Venture assets managed by NNPCL could endanger the country's economic stability, weaken its oil industry, and jeopardize the welfare of workers. They have urged President Bola Tinubu to intervene and halt the plan .