Russian oil giant Bashneft has been award the rights to explore for oil in the south of the country after nearly one month of negotiations, a senior Baghdad official said on Sunday, according to a report from Bloomberg.
This brings the total number of Russian companies with oil deals in Iraq to three.
During Iraq’s fourth energy bidding round at the end of May, Bashneft and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam were part of a consortium led by UK’s Premier bidding for the 8,000-square-kilometer (3,100-square-mile) Block 12, in the provinces of Muthanna and Najaf.
The consortium rejected the government’s proposed fee of $5 per barrel of oil equivalent as too low and sought $9.85 for each barrel, but the deputy director of the Oil Ministry’s contracts department, Sabah al-Saidi, reportedly said that the ministry reached a separate agreement with Bashneft last week after it accepted the $5 fee.
(Source: Bloomberg)
1 July
