NNPC Stakes: When the State Lets Go of the Steering Wheel

Oil usually leaves Nigeria quietly. This time, it is the state that is stepping aside.

President Bola Tinubu has approved the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to sell parts of its oil blocks, a decision that sounds technical and feels political. For the informed, as Nigeria seems starved of capital, the move reads like a calculated loosening of grip.

The facts: NNPC plans to sell about 35 per cent of its stakes in several onshore joint ventures, including blocks operated with Oando, Seplat, and Renaissance Africa Energy. A British bank has been hired, and the current timeline points to early 2026.

This divestment sits beside a wider push. The upstream regulator has launched a 50-block licensing round, hoping to attract $10 billion in new investment. Together, both efforts aim to lift production and revive a sector that has lost its swagger.

The logic rests on arithmetic. Reducing NNPC’s dominant stakes and ownership shifts operational control to private partners who can move faster, raise money easier, and drill without waiting for budget cycles.

Advertised benefits include the addition of 400,000 barrels per day; freeing of public funds for roads, schools, and power; steadier revenue, calmer markets; and jobs across fields and service chains. However, sceptical hands are raised.

Even as oil unions worry about job security, critics are asking who buys, at what price, and under what terms. Then, the issue of signal arises because the sale suggests the state now sees itself less as an operator and more as a referee. Critics further argue that oil wealth rarely fixes everything it touches.

Yet, inertia carries its own cost. Declining production, rising debt, and idle assets create slow crises that feel normal until they break. Therefore, optimistic commentators are quick to state that this all fits into Tinubu’s broader economic posture of attracting capital, tolerating risk, and accepting political heat.

Essentially, by approving the sale, Tinubu has chosen motion over comfort. The wells may stay underground, yet ownership is already shifting. In Nigeria’s oil story, that shift could matter as much as the barrels themselves.