Shahristani and senior executives from Iraq's South Oil Company (SOC) and the Iraq Drilling Company will appear before the legislative chamber next Tuesday, Shatha Musawi, a lawmaker with the ruling Shi'ite alliance, told Reuters.

The parliamentary summons came after SOC head Fayad Nema, whose unit produces the bulk of Iraq's 2.3 million to 2.4 million barrels per day of crude, told Reuters he objected to the first round of contracts and had called on Shahristani to cancel the bidding round.

Despite the criticism, the Oil Ministry said it was pushing ahead with its tender plans as scheduled.

Musawi said oil experts had described the first round of fixed-fee service contracts, due to be handed out on 29 and 30 June, as a waste of Iraqi money because they involved oilfields in which Iraq had invested heavily since the 2003 US-led invasion.

"They said Iraq so far had spent around $8 billion to rehabilitate these fields ... they said it is not reasonable after all this money and all the development undertaken that foreign companies should take these fields and share Iraq's production," she told the news agency.

"For this reason, parliament decided to host the oil minister and those oil experts in a special session and to hear from all of them," Musawi added.

Nevertheless, the Petroleum Contracts & Licences Directorate of the Oil Ministry said it was moving "full steam ahead" with its plans for the first round auction.

"Today, we received the green light from the cabinet to go ahead and announce the first bidding round on schedule, without any delay or change," Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, the deputy director general of the directorate, told Reuters.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Cabinet was committed to executing the first bidding round as scheduled.

The deals represent Iraq's first big push in three decades for foreign investment in its oilfields.

Published: 16 June 2009 07:51 GMT  | Last updated: 16 June 2009 14:31 GMT