EXCLUSIVE: How NUPRC Boss Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan Handed Oil Blocks to Ghost Firms, Newborn Companies and Otudeko’s Family Firm

Secrets Reporters

Corporate filings examined by SecretsReporters show that five of the companies declared winners of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s 2025 oil licensing round have no record on any company registry checked, and eight more were less than three years old when the awards were announced on 21 July 2026. Between them, the ghost companies and the newborn firms took 17 of the 37 blocks on offer. A fourteenth winner, Pivot-GIS Limited, is owned by the family of Oba Otudeko, founder of the Honeywell Group. The awards were announced seven months into the tenure of Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, confirmed by the Senate as NUPRC chief executive on 19 December 2025 after the resignation of Gbenga Komolafe. The bid process itself ran through 2025 under Komolafe.

The ghost winners

Five winning companies could not be found on the Corporate Affairs Commission public search portal, and cross-checks on two other Nigerian corporate lookup platforms returned nothing for them either.

Attabanson Global Company Limited won two blocks, 2A33 and PPL 901, in the 2025 round. No incorporation record, no RC number and no registered address exists for the company in any registry checked.

Concept-Reel Petroleum Services Limited won two blocks, 2A47 and 2A55. The company has no record on any registry checked. The closest match anywhere is Concept-Real Petroleum Services Ltd, RC 1178984, a differently spelled entity that has been inactive since 2014.

Blackrock Holdings Limited won PPL 2A58. No Nigerian corporate record exists for it. The only Blackrock entities on the lookup platforms are the unrelated foreign asset manager’s vehicles in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

Nikstallis won two blocks, 2A61 and PPL 900. The company has no record on any registry checked. The closest match is Nikstalis Nigeria Limited, RC 1033642, a differently spelled entity that has been inactive since 2012.

Eyre Energy Limited won PPL 801. No Nigerian corporate record exists for it. The only Eyre Energy entities on the lookup platforms are in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

The eight blocks awarded to these five companies in 2026 went to names with no verifiable corporate existence in Nigeria.

The newborn winners

Eight winning companies are duly registered with the CAC and active, but all were incorporated less than three years before the 21 July 2026 awards, and four were under six months old.

BVOF Energy Company Limited, RC 9218162, was registered on 15 January 2026 and won 2A43 about six months later.

Gupsco Energy Limited, RC 9271188, was registered on 1 February 2026 and won two blocks, 2A44 and 2A51, about five months later.

Volonte Oil and Gas Limited, RC 9355215, was registered on 20 February 2026 and won 2A46 about five months later.

Saratoga Oil and Gas Limited, RC 9385151, was registered on 3 March 2026 and won 2A45 about four months later. The CAC match is the nearest name to the “Saratoga” on the winner list, and other Saratoga entities exist, so the exact corporate identity needs confirmation against NUPRC’s winner documentation.

CFP Pipelines and Flowlines Company Limited, RC 8474847, was registered on 12 May 2025 and won 2A30 about fourteen months later.

Southborne Oil and Gas Limited, RC 8298942, was registered on 26 February 2025 and won PPL 902 about seventeen months later.

Up Energies Limited, RC 8437090, was registered on 25 April 2025 and won 2A56 about fifteen months later.

Nuway Oaklane Energy Limited, RC 7480707, was registered on 6 May 2024 and won 2A49 about twenty-six months later. The CAC match is the nearest name to the “Nuway Oaklane” on the winner list and needs confirmation against NUPRC’s winner documentation.

Nine blocks in the 2025 round went to companies formed between four and twenty-six months before the awards.

The inactive question

No winner in the 2025 round was confirmed inactive on the CAC portal. Every company found on the portal carries an active status. The only inactive entities anywhere near the winner list are the two near-matches noted above, Concept-Real Petroleum Services Ltd, inactive since 2014, and Nikstalis Nigeria Limited, inactive since 2012, both differently spelled from the winning names. Whether either is the actual winner under a variant spelling is for NUPRC’s winner documentation to settle.

The Otudeko winner

One winner stands apart from the ghosts and the newborns because its owners are publicly documented. Pivot-GIS Limited won block 2A39 in the 2025 round with a 14.53 million dollar signature bonus. Corporate filings show the company, RC 610341, incorporated on 3 November 2004, is owned 60 percent by Dr Oba Otudeko and 40 percent by Mrs Adebisi Otudeko, who is listed as the person with significant control. Obafemi Otudeko and Kehinde Bolodeoku sit on the board as directors.

Otudeko, born 18 August 1943 in Ibadan, is the founder and chairman of the Honeywell Group, the conglomerate founded in 1972 with interests spanning foods and agro-allied, real estate, infrastructure, energy and services. He is a former chairman of FBN Holdings Plc, the parent of First Bank of Nigeria, a former chairman of the Nigerian Stock Exchange council, and a former board member of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Notably, even the CAC’s own public search portal failed to return Pivot-GIS Limited under its exact name; the ownership details emerged only from cross-checks on other corporate lookup platforms.

What the rules say

The 2025 round offered fifty blocks, drew 200 bids from 143 companies, and produced 31 winners for 37 blocks, announced at the commercial bid conference in Abuja on 21 July 2026. Thirteen blocks drew no bids. Under the Petroleum Industry Act, winners become licence holders only after paying signature bonuses and securing the petroleum minister’s approval.

After reviewing the 2022 to 2024 rounds, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative flagged the absence of beneficial ownership disclosure by bidders as a gap in the process. Its beneficial ownership register covers only companies already holding producing assets, so none of the 2025 pre-production winners appears in it. The 2026 licensing round, announced on 6 October 2026 with forty blocks on offer, makes beneficial ownership disclosure mandatory for bidders. The winner lists for the 2025 round name no natural person behind any of the ghost or newborn companies.