Baghdad signs final deals for biggest oilfields

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Baghdad has finalised the last of 10 contracts with foreign firms that last year won the right to develop some of the country’s biggest oilfields.

The Russian company Lukoil and Norway’s Statoil yesterday signed the final version of a 20-year development contract for West Qurna Phase 2, a “supergiant” oilfield in southern Iraq containing 12.9 billion barrels of reserves.

The flurry of deals signed last month could set Iraq on the path to becoming the world’s top oil producer, said the country’s oil minister, Dr Hussain al Shahristani. “We can’t find a reason to prevent Iraqi production becoming higher than any other OPEC state or even states outside OPEC. We expect that to happen in the next six to seven years,” Dr al Shahristani said on Saturday.