Privacy Policy

This document is prepared in accordance with Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). It sets out how Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) applies and complies with the principles of the act and regulation in processing the personal data of individuals, clients, vendors, and even third parties that interact with NUPRC.

This privacy policy describes how we collect and process your personal information through your use of our data collection forms/website ("the site") and the account you open with us ("Account"), to create an account profile, to ensure security of the website and to enable you to use our products.

This policy will guide the collection, processing and storage of personal data of site users, such as operators, host communities etc, when they access our website or make use of any of our services, including any written, electronic, oral communication, online or offline.

The primary purpose of this policy is to provide you with better understanding of:

• Information we collect
• How we use the data we collect
• Who we share your data with
• Lawful grounds of processing
• Retention period
• Your data rights
• How to contact us
• Security of the personal data we hold

Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) is responsible for ensuring compliance with petroleum laws, regulations, and guidelines in Nigeria's Upstream Oil and Gas sector.

NUPRC key functions include:

• Supervising operations under licenses and leases.
• Monitoring operations to align with national goals, including gas flare elimination, domestic gas delivery, and crude oil supply obligations.
• Ensuring adherence to Health, Safety, and Environmental regulations.
• Maintaining records on petroleum reserves, production, exports, licenses, and leases.
• Advising the government on technical and policy matters affecting upstream activities.
• Processing applications for upstream petroleum leases, licenses, and permits.
• Ensuring timely payment of rents, royalties, and other government revenues.
• Managing the National Data Repository (NDR).

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) personal data is defined as:

"Any information relating to an individual, who can be identified or is identifiable, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, psychological, cultural, social, or economic identity of that individual."

This Privacy Policy tells you how we, NUPRC, will collect and use your personal data for relationship management, profiling, business analytics/development, communication, registration, cookies, and all-round efficient service delivery.

How Will NUPRC Use the Personal Data It Collects About Me?

We will process (collect, use and store) the information you provide in a manner that complies with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) and/or EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We will endeavour to keep your information accurate and up to date and not keep it for longer than is necessary.

NUPRC is required to retain information in accordance with the law, such as information needed for business relations, regulatory operations, compliance with national laws. The retention period for certain kinds of personal data may also be governed by specific business-sector requirements and agreed practices. Personal data may be held in addition to these periods depending on individual business needs.

What Personal Data Do We Use?

The personal data we would collect and process, depending on the particular processing requirement, are under the following categories:

We need to collect your personal data in order for us to provide you with our services. In any event, we are committed to ensuring that the information we collect, and use is appropriate for this purpose(s) only, and will in no way invade your privacy.

If there is a need to use your personal data for marketing purposes, NUPRC will seek additional consent from you. NUPRC shall not collect or process more data than is reasonably required for a particular processing activity.

In addition, every processing purpose has at least one lawful basis for processing to safeguard the rights of the data subjects, as listed below:

Legitimate Interest Assessment

Where Legitimate Interest is considered the legal basis for processing personal data, NUPRC shall follow the steps below in carrying out a Legitimate Interest Assessment.

1. Determine the Purpose for Processing

In carrying out the purpose test, NUPRC establishes the exact reason for the processing and how it benefits the organisation. Answers to the following shall be provided to determine the exact purpose for processing:

• Description of the processing objective
• The likelihood of meeting the objective and how to determine if the objective was met
• The benefit of the processing and the significance to the organisation
• Description of the possible impact of not processing and any other issues that might be relevant

2. Determine the Necessity of the Processing

NUPRC establishes why the processing must take place, how the processing relates to the expected benefits, and any other alternatives and why they were not considered.

3. Balance the identified interest with the Privacy Interest of the Data Subjects

The following questions will be addressed under the balance test:

• Who are the data subjects (category)?
• What is the relationship between NUPRC and the data subject?
• What personal data is to be processed?
• How will the processing impact the data subject?
• How will the data subject react to the processing?

NUPRC records this information in line with this policy, data protection impact assessment, and data inventory.

NUPRC requires your explicit consent to process collected personal data. And by consenting to this privacy policy, you are giving us the permission to use/process your personal data specifically for the purpose identified before collection.

If, for any reason, NUPRC is requesting sensitive personal data from you, you will be rightly notified why and how the information will be used.

You may withdraw consent at any time by requesting for Withdrawal of Consent form, following the NUPRC Withdrawal of Consent Procedure.

NUPRC may pass your personal data to third-party service providers contracted by us. Any third parties that we may share your personal data with are under an obligation to secure your details, and use them only to fulfil the service for which they were contracted. When they no longer need your details to fulfil this service, the data will be disposed of in line with the NUPRC's procedures.

If we wish to pass your sensitive personal data onto a third party we will only do so once we have obtained your consent, unless we are required to do otherwise, legally.

Where there is a need for a third party to process the personal data of data subjects, NUPRC will enter into a Data Processing Agreement with the third party and be satisfied that the third party has adequate measures in place to protect the data against accidental or unauthorised access, use, disclosure, loss, or destruction.

Cross-Border Data Transfers

In a case where the disclosure is to third parties outside the jurisdiction of the NDPA, NUPRC will ensure that the third party meets the core regulatory standards prior to the transfer. This may include transferring the personal data to the third party where NUPRC has satisfied that:

• The country of the recipient has adequate data protection controls established by legal or self-regulatory regime
• NUPRC has a contract in place that uses existing or approved data protection clauses to ensure adequate protection
• NUPRC is making the transfer under approved binding corporate rules
• NUPRC is relying on approved codes of conduct or certification mechanisms, together with binding and enforceable commitments in the foreign country or international organisation to apply the appropriate safeguards in relation to data subject rights
• Provisions inserted into administrative arrangements between public authorities or bodies authorised by the competent supervisory authority

The purposes of data processing usually determines the length of time within which your personal data is stored with us and the residue of data actually stored for this purpose.

We will retain your personal data, including any correspondence you have with us only for as long as; you have a valid license, lease, or permit with NUPRC; or is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.

We collect and store personal data that is reasonably required by law or best practice to serve you or respond to legitimate enquiry about our transaction with you.

According to the provision of the NDPA, data subject has certain rights at any point while NUPRC are in possession of or processing your personal data, you, the data subject, have the right to:

• Request a copy of the information that we hold about you
• Correct the data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete
• Right to rectify inaccurate data
• Ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our systems/record
• Restrict processing of your personal data where certain conditions apply
• Have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation
• Object to certain types of processing like direct marketing
• Object to automated processing like profiling, as well as the right to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling
• Right to lodge compliant with the Data Processor/Controller (NUPRC)
• Right to Lodge Complaint to the Supervisory Authority (Nigeria Data Protection Commission) at Info@ndpc.gov.ng

Can I Find Out the Personal Data That NUPRC Holds About Me?

NUPRC, at your request, can confirm what information we hold about you and how it is processed. If we do hold your personal data, you have the right to request the following information:

• Contact details of the data protection officer, where applicable.
• The purpose of the processing as well as the legal basis for processing.
• Information about interests, if the processing is based on the legitimate interests of NUPRC or a third party.
• The categories of personal data collected, stored and processed.
• Recipient(s) or categories of recipients that the data is/will be disclosed to.
• Information about how we intend to securely transfer the personal data to a third party or international organisation. The Attorney General of the Federation will approve sending personal data to some countries because they meet a minimum standard of data protection. In other cases, we will ensure there are specific measures in place to secure your information.
• How long the data will be stored.
• Details of your rights to correct, erase, restrict or object to such processing.
• Information about your right to withdraw consent at any time.
• How to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority.
• Whether the provision of personal data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract, as well as whether you are obliged to provide the personal data and the possible consequences of failing to provide such data.
• The source of personal data if you didn't provide it directly.
• Any details and information of automated decision making, such as profiling, and any meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and expected consequences of such processing.

All of the above requests will be forwarded should there be a third party involved in the processing of your personal data.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure systems.

We implement appropriate, generally accepted technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data such as (firewalls, password access and encryption methods) against unauthorised or unlawful Processing, accidental loss, destruction, or damage.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. We will do our best to protect your personal information, but we cannot guarantee 100% security of your data transmitted to our servers using the internet and any transmission is at your own risk.

Under what circumstances will the NUPRC contact me? We do not intend to be intrusive, and we will not ask irrelevant or unnecessary questions. Moreover, we will subject the information you provide to rigorous measures and procedures to minimise the risk of unauthorised access or disclosure.

NUPRC reserves the right to review and amend this policy from time to time, due to changes in privacy laws or regulations and public interest.

If for any reason you wish to make a complaint about how NUPRC (or any of our third parties) processes your personal data, or how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the Data Protection Officer of NUPRC.

Below are the details for each of these contacts: