Iraq strikes deals to develop five more oilfields with global energy firms

    BAGHDAD, Dec. 12, 2009 (Xinhua) --

The Iraqi Oil Ministry said Saturday that it has awarded world's leading energy companies with the development contracts of five more oilfields on the second day of the bidding.

    The Russian Lukoil and its partner the Norway's Statoil on Saturday won the right to develop Iraq's super giant West Qurana Phase 2 oil field, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said. The group accepted a remuneration of 1.15 U.S. dollars per barrel extracted from the field. The West Qurna Phase 2 has an estimated reserves of 12.9 billion barrels of oil.

    Another consortium comprising of Russian giant oil firm of Gazprom, the Republic of Korea's Kogas, Malaysia's Petronas and Turkey's TPAO, won the right of developing the Badra oilfield in eastern Iraq.

    Also on Saturday, an oil ministry source told Xinhua that the ministry reached an agreement with Sonangol over the Qaiyarah oilfield in the north of the country. The Angolan company failed Friday to strike the deal after it refused the offered price by the ministry of five U.S. dollars per barrel, but later it accepted to work on the field climbing down from its initial price of 12.50 U.S. dollars.

    The same Angolan firm won another oilfield of Najmah in Nineveh province in northern Iraq for a fee of six dollars per barrel.

    The Iraqi ministry also awarded the Garraf oil field to a group of Malaysia's Petronas and Japan's Japex.

    On Friday, two deals were struck at the auction. The Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas were awarded the contract to exploit the Majnoon oilfield in southern Iraq, one of the world's largest untapped oil fields with more than 12 billion barrels of proven reserves. A consortium led by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil and gas producer, together with Petronas and France's Total, won the contract for the Halfayaoilfield, also in the south.

    More than 40 world oil companies from 23 countries, including BP and Total, are seeking investment in 10 Iraqi oil fields over two days in Iraq's second round of bidding since 2003.

    The first auction round was held in June this year, in which the CNPC joined hands with BP to win the Rumaila oilfield service contract.

Editor: Li Xianzhi

Russia's LUKoil wins auction to develop Iraqi oil field

15:26, 12/12/2009

Ria Novosti,

Russia's largest independent oil producer LUKoil won an auction on Saturday for a contract to develop one of Iraq's largest oil fields.

Iraq also awarded contracts to Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell, China's CNPC and Malaysia's Petronas during the two-day sale.

LUKoil will develop the 12.88 billion-barrel West Qurna-2 field in the Basra province as a consortium with StatoilHydro. The Russian company holds an 85% stake in the consortium, and the Norwegian oil producer has 15%. They aim to bring production to 1.8 million barrels per day.

France's Total SA, Malaysia's Petronas and Britain's BP also competed in the auction.

LUKoil was involved in the development of the first phase of West Qurna and signed a contract with the Saddam Hussein regime to develop the second stage, but the deal was frozen in 2002.

On Friday, the Majnoon field in the country's south, with reserves of 12.6 billion barrels was auctioned to Shell and Petronas.

CNPC led a consortium with Petronas and Total that won a contract on Friday for the Halfaya field in southern Iraq, with reserves of 4.1 billion barrels.

MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti)