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"We hope this will be finished this year, this will be the fourth bidding round," he added.Jihad also said that draft contracts for gas fields auctioned to foreign energy companies late last year would be finalised later this month.
Iraq currently produces around 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, with around 80 percent of those being exported. Both figures are expected to rise dramatically in the coming years after two oil field auctions in 2009 led to 11 contracts being signed with international firms.Oil revenues account for 90 percent of Iraq's government income.