The bidding will take place “as planned on December 11 and 12, and we expect strong competition and participation,” he told AFP at a conference in Baghdad on administrative reforms.

A first round of bidding at the end of June for five oil and two gas fields was mostly snubbed by oil majors because of a perceived low return on investment offered by the Iraqi government.

But agreements have since been signed for three of the oil fields. Next month, 44 companies are due to take part in bidding to develop 10 oil fields.

Earlier this month, Baghdad completed a deal with Britain’s BP and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to near-triple production at the giant Rumaila oilfield, Iraq’s biggest.

ExxonMobil at the head of a consortium became the first US company to win a contract since Iraq’s oil industry was nationalised almost 40 years ago, further expanding the role of foreign nations in the industry.

The contract to develop West Qurna 1, the war-torn country’s second largest field, is designed to boost its production more than eight-fold.

Both fields are in southern Iraq, home to most of the nation’s oil.

And a consortium led by the Italian energy giant ENI has initialled a contract with the Baghdad government to explore the Zubair oilfield, also in the south.

Iraq’s bidding process has been marked by an aggressive strategy adopted by oil firms from China, for which securing long-term energy supplies for its massive economy is a national security issue.

Initially, foreign firms due to the prices on offer snubbed Iraq in what had been the first such opportunity for outside investment in the sector in almost 40 years.

The service contracts offered by Baghdad, the first big opportunity for outside investment in the sector in almost 40 years, are based on companies accepting a fixed fee per barrel of oil extracted rather than an equity stake preferred by the majors.

Iraq has the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves of 115 billion barrels, behind only Saudi Arabia and Iran. Oil sales, especially exports of 2.4 million barrels per day, provide 85 percent of government revenues.

However, there has been little exploration or development of fields in the past three decades because of wars and an embargo imposed on Iraq in 1990 following dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

Iraq aims to boost output to seven million bpd within six years by developing the Zubair, Rumaila, West Qurna 1, Kirkuk and Maysan fields. Longer term, Shahristani’s sights are set on between 10 and 12 million bpd.