Iraq looks set to shake up the Middle East's oil hierarchy after the Iraqi Oil Ministry ended its second bidding round last week, awarding seven oilfields in a tender which could eventually increase the war-torn country's capacity to 12 million barrels per day.
The auction, which centered on oilfields ready for development, saw Russian and Chinese oil firms secure lucrative contracts at the expense of companies from the United States who were largely absent from the tender for deals to tap Iraqi oil reserves, the world's third-largest.
While the lack of success for US companies caused some surprise - considering the widespread belief that the US-led invasion was based on a thirst for oil - the main topic of debate after the auction was the likelihood that Iraq's new oil power would move Baghdad into the big league of oil producing countries and give it a strong hand in future Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) negotiations on output quotas.
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