gulfnews : Iraq denies it will cancel Exxon drilling contract

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said on Friday that Baghdad wouldn't terminate ExxonMobil Corp's contract to develop the West Qurna-1 oil field in southern Iraq as punishment for signing a deal with the country's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, with whom Baghdad has a long-running dispute over land and the sharing of oil resources.

"We haven't cancelled its contract in the south," said Al Maliki in an interview with the Wall Street Journal ahead of a scheduled state visit to Washington this week. "We are looking for a way for its [ExxonMobil's] other contracts in any area to be within the legal contexts, but as for cancelling its contract in the south, no."

Al Maliki also said that Exxon has "frozen" its controversial contract with the KRG, which was announced in November, and suggested that his government was willing to find a way to ultimately make the deal work if negotiations were restarted with the involvement of the Ministry of Oil.

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