The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Monday said the Federal Government has shortlisted 161 firms for the final stage of the bid round process for country’s 57 marginal oilfields.

It depicted a marginal field as any field that has reserves booked and reported yearly to the DPR and has remained unproduced for over 10 years.

Its Head, Public Affairs of the DPR, Mr Paul Osu, made this known in a statement on Monday.

According to the statement, the 57 marginal fields available for bidding include 11 fields revoked by the Federal Government for various reasons, including  non-performance.

Earlier, the regulatory agency had said over 600 firms applied to be pre-qualified for the bid rounds for the marginal oilfields, an exercise last conducted in 2003.

The ongoing programme had attracted widespread interest, prompting an extension of the deadline to June 21, with an almost 30 per cent increase in participation during the shift in date.

The statement stated that the firms were selected from the over 600 entities which applied for pre-qualification.

The DPR spokesman said: “The 2020 marginal oilfield bid round process is still ongoing in line with our published timelines on DPR website and bid portal.

“The current status is that 161 successful companies have been shortlisted to advance to the next and final stage of the process.”

He stated that the bids began on June 1, 2020, adding that the DPR had put measures in place to ensure that the awardees would be credible investors with technical and financial capability.

According to him, the objective of the bid is to deepen the participation of indigenous firms in the upstream segment of the industry and provide opportunities for technical and financial partnerships for investors.