Taps on: in Iraq
Baghdad names bid round date
Iraq will announce a new bidding round on 29 December for an unspecified number of long-term oil and gas contracts, an Oil Ministry official said today.
Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters that Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani would kick off the bidding round for service contracts at a conference at the Oil Ministry in Baghdad.
He declined to reveal how many fields were involved but said details would be made public at the conference.
"The Iraqi Oil Ministry is keen to speed up efforts to develop Iraqi oil fields as much as possible to increase both production and export rates," Jihad said.
Iraq announced a first bidding round for long-term contracts for eight big oil and gas fields in June of this year.
Jihad said Iraq would announce a third bidding round in about six months.