French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in Baghdad Tuesday that Total SA (TOT) and other French companies are ready to start investment in Iraq's oil industry and other sectors.
Speaking in a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Sarkozy added that the French prime minister and external minister would visit Iraq before the summer with representatives from French companies.
Meanwhile, Maliki told reporters that Iraq's Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani would visit France soon to discuss French companies' investment in the Iraqi oil sector.
French company Total negotiated and initiated production sharing contracts, or PSC, for Iraq's Majnoon and Nahr bin Umar oil fields, each with estimated reserves of 12 billion barrels, in the late 1990s, but stopped short of signing definitive deals, as Iraq was under international sanctions.