More than 40 international oil companies, including the world's largest, are competing for the fields, which hold more than 35 billion barrels of oil equivalent in proven reserves. Maliki pledged to improve security in the volatile country. "We are working to improve security to the extend that companies would start their work to develop these oil fields."
This is the second post-war bid round
Iraq has held this year. At the first one held in June Iraq auctioned eight oil and gas fields. Companies then rejected
Iraq's tough terms and only two companies BP (BP.LN) and China National Petroleum Corporation accepted the ministry's terms and walked away with one contract to develop
Rumaila,
Iraq's largest producing oil field.
However, some consortiums changed their minds and accepted the oil ministry's tough terms for contracts in the first bidding round and signed contracts. They are Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) which signed for West Quran Phase 1 and Italy's ENI SpA (E) and U.S.' Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY) which clinched a deal to develop Zubair, both in southern Iraq.
Iraqi oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani said that if these three oil fields developed they would boast
Iraq's crude oil exports to 7 million barrels a day which would bring much-needed to
Iraq of between $150 million and $200 billion a year.
Iraq is currently exporting around 2 million barrels a day