Eni, Occidental to Spend $1 Billion a Year on Iraqi Oilfield

* username: rupertbu

Eni SpA and partners including Occidental Petroleum Corp. plan to spend about $1 billion a year to boost production at Iraq’s Zubair oil field by 1 million barrels a day after winning rights to develop the deposit.

Iraq, holder of the world’s third-largest oil reserves, signed a 20-year development contract for Zubair with the group led by Eni, Italy’s largest oil company, in Baghdad today.

Eni and partners Occidental and Korea Gas Corp. will “start working from tomorrow to create a development plan and rates of production and investment” for the Zubair project, Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said today.