Angolan state oil firm Sonangol has decided to exit Iraq due to security problems in a conflict region where it has operated two fields, a senior executive at the company said on Tuesday.

Sonangol in 2009 won the right to operate the Qayara and Najmah oilfields in the Nineveh province in Iraq's northwest, where Sunni Islamist insurgents remain active.

Anabela Fonseca, Sonangol board member in charge of international investments, told a news conference that the decision was taken after the company was unable to develop the projects due to their location in a region of "much conflict". – Reuters