Cross River State’s long-running struggle to regain recognition as an oil-producing state has received a major boost, following the emergence of new investors in the state’s onshore petroleum frontier and renewed efforts by the state to secure full recognition within Nigeria’s oil and gas framework.
The Cross River State Economic Intelligence Team (CREIT) says the state has now received what it describes as full accreditation of its oil-producing status, following developments around the verification of petroleum assets and the inclusion of parts of the state in the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) 2025 Licensing Round.
The development is being celebrated by stakeholders as a major step forward in Cross River’s decades-long quest to reclaim its position in Nigeria’s petroleum economy.
However, available official records show that Cross River’s reinstatement has been projected through the Federal Government’s inter-agency verification process, while the latest NUPRC licensing activities provide concrete evidence of renewed upstream interest in the state. The state’s wider derivation and oil-producing recognition process still involves regulatory and constitutional steps.
At the centre of the latest development is the Calabar Flank, an historically underexplored geological province that has now featured in Nigeria’s 2025 upstream licensing exercise.
Three blocks identified by Cross River stakeholders as relevant to the state’s petroleum frontier are PPL 2A45, PPL 2A61 and PPL 2A62. The NUPRC’s official licensing portal confirms that the three blocks were among those offered in the 2025 round.
The commercial significance became clearer on July 21, 2026, when NUPRC announced the winners of the 2025 Licensing Round.
According to the Commission, Saratoga emerged as winner of PPL 2A45, Clinton Oil Field won PPL 2A62, while Nikstallis emerged winner of PPL 2A61. NUPRC said the successful companies would receive final awards after payment of the applicable signature bonuses and approval by the Minister of Petroleum Resources in line with the Petroleum Industry Act.
The NUPRC licensing framework gives holders of Petroleum Prospecting Licences the exclusive right to drill exploration and appraisal wells, subject to the terms of the licence. The licences are therefore an important gateway for modern exploration activities, although they should not by themselves be interpreted as proof that commercial oil production has already commenced in Cross River.
For Cross River, the significance lies in the fact that areas around the Ikang, Calabar and Odukpani–Mbiabo corridors are once again attracting attention from investors and petroleum regulators.
Historical exploration in the area produced wells including Ikang-1 and the Calabar wells, while other petroleum wells around Mbiabo Ikot Offiong have remained part of the state’s long-running argument that Cross River possesses a petroleum history and resource base deserving recognition.
The new licensing cycle now provides an opportunity for these areas to be subjected to modern seismic interpretation, subsurface modelling, exploratory drilling and contemporary oil and gas technology.
The development also comes against the background of a much bigger political and fiscal battle over Cross River’s oil-producing status.
In February, the Federal Government’s Inter-Agency Committee on Nigeria’s oil-producing states submitted its report to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) after a six-month verification exercise covering crude oil and gas coordinates from 2017 to 2025.
Reports from the exercise projected Cross River for relisting as an oil-producing state, potentially restoring a status the state lost after the Bakassi-related developments.
Governor Bassey Otu has made the restoration of the state’s oil-producing status one of the major issues in his administration’s engagement with the Federal Government.
In April, Otu rallied Cross River elders and stakeholders behind the campaign, saying his administration was committed to correcting what it described as the injustice that led to the state’s removal from the oil-producing bloc.
The controversy has, however, also brought Cross River into renewed confrontation with neighbouring Akwa Ibom State over disputed offshore oil wells.
In January, the Federal Government commenced the plotting of coordinates of disputed and newly drilled oil and gas wells after an inter-agency technical committee completed its verification exercise. RMAFC said the exercise was intended to help establish the locations and rightful beneficiaries of disputed petroleum assets.
Cross River has subsequently intensified its claim to the disputed oil wells attributed to Akwa Ibom, with the state insisting that the coordinates should be subjected to proper technical and scientific verification. The state has argued that it retains access to the sea through the Cross River estuary and should therefore benefit from offshore derivation where the relevant petroleum assets fall within its territory.
Akwa Ibom has strongly rejected the claim. Governor Umo Eno said in February that the state’s ownership of the disputed 76 oil wells was protected by Supreme Court judgments and argued that the Federal Government’s inter-agency report was not a final decision reallocating the wells.
The Cross River State Economic Intelligence Team, however, has continued to challenge the handling of the technical report. CREIT argued that the inter-agency exercise was based on scientific plotting and verification and called for the report to be transmitted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for consideration.
This means the latest developments around the Calabar Flank and the disputed offshore wells are happening on two connected fronts: new petroleum investment onshore and a renewed fight over the state’s entitlement to offshore oil revenues.
For Cross River, the emerging opportunity is therefore bigger than simply being listed as an oil-producing state.
The state will need to develop the infrastructure, manpower, local-content capacity and regulatory institutions required to benefit from the petroleum value chain.
Exploration could create opportunities for local contractors, engineers, transport operators, accommodation providers, community enterprises and technical workers. If commercial discoveries are eventually made, the wider economic implications could extend to gas development, processing, logistics, industrial investment and increased government revenue.
This is why the emerging petroleum activity around the Calabar Flank is being viewed as a potential turning point.
For years, Cross River’s oil argument was largely associated with petitions, historical wells, boundary questions and political campaigns.
Now, the state is seeing petroleum blocks within its broader frontier appear on an official national licensing platform, while investors have emerged as successful bidders for some of the blocks.
The NUPRC’s records show that the licensing round attracted successful bidders across 37 blocks, demonstrating renewed interest in Nigeria’s upstream sector.
For Governor Otu, the development provides another platform to push the argument that Cross River should no longer be treated as a state without a meaningful place in Nigeria’s petroleum economy.
The ultimate test, however, will be what comes next.
From oil status to oil economy is likely to be the bigger challenge.
Recognition must translate into exploration. Exploration must translate into discoveries where commercially viable. Discoveries must translate into production, jobs, infrastructure, local business opportunities and revenue.
Cross River will also have to ensure that host communities are carried along, environmental concerns are properly addressed and the state develops the technical capacity required to participate meaningfully in the industry.
The state’s petroleum story is therefore entering a new phase.
The wells of yesterday may have been capped and abandoned, but the licensing of new petroleum blocks around the Calabar Flank has opened the door for a new generation of exploration.
For Cross Riverians, the expectation is now clear: oil recognition must eventually become oil development, and oil development must become tangible economic benefits for the people.
Post A Comment: