Iraq says close to deals on first round oilfields

Published: 13 Oct 2009 04:38:51 PST

BAGHDAD, Oct 13 - Iraq is in the final stages of negotiating deals for oilfields left over from a June energy auction after oil majors put forward new bids for production targets and accepted Iraq's fee terms, a top official said.

Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told a news conference on Tuesday that ENI, Occidental, and KOGAS had proposed a production plateau target of 1.125 million barrels per day (bpd) for Zubair oilfield and had agreed to a fee of $2 per barrel.

He also said a consortium of LUKOIL and ConocoPhillips was competing against Exxon Mobil for West Qurna, Phase 1. The LUKOIL group had propsed an output target of 1.5 million bpd, while Exxon had put forward a target of 2.1 million bpd.