Iraq union blocks China, UK oil firms

The trade union representing workers of Iraq's state-owned Southern Oil Company (SOC) threatened on Thursday to prevent exploitation of one of Iraq's biggest oil fields by energy giants BP and CNPC.

Baghdad last month accepted an offer from British energy firm BP and its Chinese counterpart CNPC to work in the giant Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq that has known reserves of 17.7 billion barrels.

"If those companies try to exploit the field, our first reaction will be to stage a sit-in and to strike," union president Ali Abbas told news agency AFP.

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