UPDATE 1-Nigerian oil bid rounds, upstream projects delayed due to price crash - officials

(Adds quotes, information on marginal field rounds and delayed
upstream projects)
By Libby George
LAGOS, May 5 (Reuters) - Nigeria will not hold bidding
rounds for major oilfields until crude prices recover, and some
upstream projects will be completed much later than originally
planned, officials said in a web conference on Tuesday.
Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, is grappling with a
significant drop in oil prices and a collapse in global fuel
demand caused by lockdown measures aimed at containing the new
coronavirus.
The delay in some licensing rounds cut the country's
projected revenue from signature bonuses to 350 billion naira
($972.22 million) this year, from 939 billion naira originally
expected, the officials said on the call, with most the
anticipated revenue coming from license renewals.
"Where you require foreign investment ... this is not a good
time," Mele Kyari, group managing director of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, said of licensing rounds, adding
"the appetite would be very very low".
Nigeria is, however, accelerating bidding rounds for
so-called "marginal" fields, which Kyari said were less impacted
by low oil prices because they would likely be taken up by local
producers and would require less capital to develop.
Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said some upstream oil and gas
projects would be delivered "much later than originally planned"
due to scaled back government investments.
She added that Nigeria was having trouble selling some of
its oil cargoes, and noted it would also have to cut production
to below what it originally expected in the budget. The country,
as part of an agreement with OPEC and other producing nations,
agreed to trim output to help balance the global market.
As a result of the cuts and lower prices, the budget office
director said projected oil and gas revenues would drop by over
80% this year.
($1 = 360.0000 naira)