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Iraq signs agreements for two gas fields

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s oil ministry signed deals with foreign companies to develop its Mansuriyah and Siba natural gas fields, as it tries to boost its energy production and break into global gas markets.

The OPEC member signed a deal with South Korean group Kogas, Kuwait Energy Company, and Turkey’s state-owned TPAO to develop the Mansuriyah field near the Iranian border in volatile Diyala province.

It signed a second deal with TPAO and Kuwait Energy for the Siba field in the relatively peaceful southern oil hub of Basra. It delayed a third contract, for the Akkas gas field in Iraq’s western desert, to give winning bidders Kogas and Kazakh group KazMunaiGas more time to study the terms, an Iraqi oil official said, amid a row between the Iraqi government and provincial officials over the deal.

Iraq awarded contracts for development of the three fields on October 20 in its third energy bidding round since the 2003 US-led invasion. The Manisuriyah consortium won the deal after proposing a plateau production target of 320 million standard cubic feet per day and setting a remuneration fee of $7 per barrel of oil equivalent.

TPAO and Kuwait Energy set a plateau production target for Siba of 100 million cubic feet per day and a remuneration fee of $7.50 per barrel of oil equivalent. TPAO has said the two partners expect to invest $1 billion in the field.