Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told AFP Thursday that
oil giant ExxonMobil Corp has promised to reconsider an exploration deal with
Iraqi Kurdistan that Baghdad has strongly opposed.
"We had a meeting with (Exxon) in Washington and we discussed the
contracts, some of which are located in disputed areas," Maliki told AFP
in an exclusive interview as he flew back to Iraq
from Washington.
"They promised to reconsider their decision," Maliki said.
Kurdistan, a semi autonomous region, on Oct. 18 inked a deal with Exxon for it
to explore six areas, but Baghdad regards any contracts not signed with the
central government as invalid.
An official with the Iraqi oil ministry said that two of the areas--Al-Qosh and
Bardarash--are actually parts of Nineveh province that Kurdistan wants to annex
into its autonomous region, a move Baghdad opposes.
The Kurdistan contract potentially puts an Exxon contract with the Iraqi
government in jeopardy.
In January 2010, Iraq's
oil
ministry completed the deal with Exxon and Anglo-Dutch giant Royal
Dutch
Shell to develop production at West Qurna-1, which with reserves of
about 8.5
billion barrels is the country's second-biggest field.