Afghan oil and gas bidding begins against the odds

* Seeks bids for three untested gas and oilfields

* Minister says more blocks may be on offer eventually

* Analysts say a planned pipeline may prove attractive

By Chris Baldwin

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - The Afghan government was in London on Tuesday soliciting bids on three untested oil and gas fields in a country with no refineries, no industry and an internal energy market based largely on firewood.

Last year when it began plans to solicit bids for these fields -- last studied by the Soviets in the 1970s -- oil was $147 a barrel and natural gas around $13.50 per million British thermal units.

On Tuesday as Afghan Minister of Mines Ibrahim Adel came to London as part of a global roadshow for his country's first hydrocarbon bidding round, oil was $49 a barrel and natural gas down to $3.26 mmBtu.

"The process was started eight or nine months ago, and the crisis we have now is just an accident," Adel said.