Representatives of foreign companies
at the tendering
Iraq's oil minister on Tuesday asked international oil firms bidding for oil contracts to reconsider their proposals for fields the Oil Ministry had yet to strike deals on.
Of eight giant oil and gas fields on offer, Iraq had only struck a deal with a BP-led group for the largest - Rumaila - while offers on the others came in far above the maximum fee the government was willing to pay for every extra barrel of oil produced.
Oil Minister Hussain Al-Shahristani set a deadline of 1800 local/1500 GMT for oil executives gathered in Baghdad to resubmit bids in Iraq's first auction of major oil and gas contracts since the 2003 US-led invasion.
The Oil Ministry earlier said it received five bids for the super giant 8.7 billion barrel West Qurna oil field, the most competitive bidding yet for the fields up to tender.
The groups bidding for West Qurna were led by Total, Lukoil, Repsol, Exxon Mobil and China National Petroleum Corp. - Reuters