Iraq hails 2nd oil auction but risky sites shunned

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Iraq's oil minister began counting the money Saturday even before the first wells were drilled, dubbing the country's second postwar oil auction a triumph even as international oil companies largely snubbed the most violent regions in the Middle East's last major oil bonanza.

The two days of bidding produced deals on only seven of the 15 fields on offer. Of those, four were in the stable southern Shiite heartland while two in the north went to the only company that expressed interest: Angola's Sonogal. The last was in central Iraq, in a province where violence has remained low.

... On Saturday, Russian private oil giant Lukoil teamed up with Norway's Statoil ASA to snatch the crown jewel of the auction, the 12.88 billion barrel West Qurna Phase 2 field in southern Iraq. It was something of a coup for Lukoil, which won the contract in 1997 under Saddam, only to see the dictator rescind the deal five years later.

The U.S. companies at the auction, including Exxon Mobil Corp., stayed on the sidelines except for one failed bid by Occidental over the two days at the heavily fortified Oil Ministry.

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