Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 31 -- The Iraqi oil ministry has launched the second round of tenders to develop some of its oil and gas fields, hoping to add as much as 2.5 million b/d of oil production capacity.
"In this bidding round, 11 groups of fields are included," said Oil Minister Hussein Al Shahristani. "The second licensing round includes greenfields which means discovered but undeveloped, and fields of low production," he said, adding that oil companies qualified to bid in the country's first licensing round will be eligible to participate in the second bid round.
The minister said conditions for new companies that want to be qualified for the second bidding round will be announced Jan. 4, 2009.
The fields on offer include the oil fields of Majnoon and West Qurna Phase 2, which each account for more than 12 billion bbl of reserves, according to the minister, as well as the Siba gas field, all in the Basra region.
The other fields being tendered are Halfaya in Missan province; Gharraf in Thi Qar province; Kifl, West Kifl, and Merjan in Najaf and Kerbala provinces; Badrah in Wasit; East Baghdad; Qayara and Najmah in Nineveh province; and Qamar, Gallabiyat, Naudoman, and Khashm Al Ahmar in Diyala province.
Contracts for the second bidding round are expected to be signed by yearend 2009 and will be service agreements. Iraq announced its first licensing round at the end of June, offering eight oil and gas fields to 35 prequalified international companies.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
