Nigeria is delaying plans for a major licensing exercise originally scheduled for the middle of this year, but is pressing ahead with a more modest round focused on re-allocating marginal oil and gas fields left dormant by majors.
The marginal field round will proceed despite a collapse in crude prices, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) managing director Mele Kyari told delegates at a seminar organised this week with the Finance Ministry and the UK Department for International Development (DfID).
A comprehensive licensing round has not been held in Nigeria since 2007, while the last marginal field licensing round was conducted back in 2003.
