Iraq invites new oil bids

Iraq's oil ministry invited foreign companies to bid on contracts to develop 10 oilfields and a gas deposit, in the second bidding round it has announced this year. Developing the new fields could increase the country's oil production by between 2 million barrels per day (bpd) and 2.5m bpd within four to five years, roughly doubling Iraq's output, the country's oil minister, Hussain al Shahristani, said.

"Under service contracts prepared by the oil ministry, 11 oil and gas fields will undergo complete development," he said. Mr Shahristani said the new licensing round would be opened in March — the same month in which bids are due on long-term contracts to develop six oilfields and two gas fields included in the previous bidding round, launched six months ago. "We will continue announcing new bidding rounds," he added, without providing details.

In total, the 10 new oilfields on offer contain about 45 billion barrels of reserves, analysts estimate. That brings the total amount of oil that Iraq is seeking to develop with help from foreign oil companies to over 90bn barrels. In August, China National Petroleum Corporation signed a US$3bn (Dh11bn) deal to develop the Adhab oilfield, south of Baghdad. tcarlisisle@thenational.ae