BP-CNPC consortium wins contract in Iraq's first post-war oil field auction
30 Jun 2009
A consortium of UK oil giant BP and China's CNPC has won a contract to run oil and gas fields in Iraq as the country auctioned contracts for eight oil and gas fields, six years after the war with the US and its allies.
The televised auction took place on the same day US troops quit Iraq's cities and left security mainly to the countries own forces.
Some oil companies were reluctant to pay the asked price for the six oil fields and two gas fields that Iraq made available in the first big oil tender since the US invasion of 2003.
The BP-CNPC consortium won the contract for the 17 billion barrel Rumaila field after Exxon Mobil rejected the terms offered by the Iraqi oil ministry.
Exxon Mobil declined to accept the ministry's maximum payment for the Rumaila field, but BP and CNPC, which had originally asked for $4 a barrel, agreed to run the field for $2 a barrel.
The oil ministry is offering 20-year service contracts to extract oil or gas from the fields and has shortlisted 31 oil companies as potential bidders.