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Iraq’s Oil Minister has said that he wants the second round auction for development contracts for the country’s oil and gas fields to be concluded by December.
News agency Bloomberg reported that Hussain Shahristani wants the successful bidders to sign the contracts by early January, before the country goes to the polls in the forthcoming Iraq government elections.
“The orders we receive from the government is to proceed as quickly as we can,” Shahristani is quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
“We don’t expect a new government to have a different policy to develop these fields,” he added.
The auction will include six partly developed and four undeveloped fields although it could also include some of the fields from the first auction that did not attract successful bids from foreign oil companies.
