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The long-running saga about who will selected to develop the Nassiriya oilfield in Iraq looks set to be resolved very shortly with the Nippon Oil Corp likely to be awarded the US$10 billion contract.
News agency Reuters reported that representatives from Nippon are expected to land in Iraq next week to finalise the deal, which is not related to the recent oil auctions in the country.
Deputy oil minister Ahmed al-Shamma was reported as saying that agreement had been reached with Nippon, oil explorer Inpex Corp and engineering contractor JGC Corp the other partners in the consortium.
Italian supermajor Eni had also been in the running, but the contract now looks certain to be awarded to the Japanese consortium.
Iraq’s oil ministry has high hopes for the Nassiriya. It is hoping that a yield of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) will be achieved for the first two years after drilling with a target of 600,000 bpd after that. Eni had estimated that the field has the potential output of up to 1 million bpd.
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