Iraq's Oil Ministry will finalise deals later this month with foreign energy firms for its Majnoon, Gharaf, Qayara and Najmah fields, a ministry official said on Sunday.
Sabah Abdul Kadhim, the head of the legal section of Iraq's Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate, said the ministry would sign a final service contract for super giant Majnoon, which was awarded to Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas in a December energy auction, on January 17.
Majnoon's reserves are a whopping 12.6 million barrels, making it one of the world's largest untapped fields.
On January 18, it will sign a deal for smaller field Gharaf, with reserves of 900 million barrels, with Petronas and the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co (Japex).
On January 26, the ministry will sign with Angola's Sonangol for northern Qayara and Najmah fields, he said. The deals for the four fields, awarded at an auction held on December 11-12, were ratified by Iraq's Cabinet early this month, and now require the final signature of oil officials and foreign consortia before work can begin.
The deals could go a long way in transforming Iraq's underperforming oil sector and bringing output capacity to an eventual 12 million barrels per day (bpd).
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