Iraq oil contracts

Global oil companies are returning to Iraq.
And contracts are being signed.
In June many of the oil majors walked away from signing energy deals with Iraq. But now they are agreeing to the June terms and signing the contracts. The following contracts have been agreed:

-ENI: a contract to boost production in the Zubair field near Basra, which it estimates has 6 billion barrels of reserves. ENI and its partners, Occidental Petroleum and Korea Gas, plan to increase output at Zubair from the current level of 190,000 barrels per day to 1.125 million within seven years. The companies will recover all costs and receive $2 in profit for each barrel above today's production level. In June they had insisted on $4.80 per incremental barrel. But after BP agreed to $2 per incremental barrel for tripling production at Rumaila-signing a deal on Nov. 3 in Baghdad-the benchmark price had been set.

-ExxonMobil-Royal Dutch Shell: West Qurna oil field.

-BP-CNPC: Rumailla


Shell, Exxon, and ConocoPhillips also are in talks that could help boost Iraq's oil production to more than 6 million barrels per day-behind only Saudi Arabia in OPEC.

Iraq is planning a second bidding round on Dec. 11-12. Forty-five international oil companies will compete for development right for 10 oil projects.