Bewildered, big oil wants fruitful next Iraq round

DUBAI (Reuters) – Deal-makers from the world’s biggest energy firms will demand more from Iraq’s second oil deal bid round since the U.S.-led invasion after many walked away bewildered and empty handed from the first round last month.

Iraq is offering ten oil and gas fields at auction in late November, another chance for international energy companies to compete for access to the world’s third-largest oil reserves.

Baghdad awarded only one of eight fields auctioned in the first round, offering such a low return on investment that most oil firms left the table despite having spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the pursuit of Iraq’s vast oil wealth.

BP and China’s CNPC won the only and biggest prize, a deal to work on one of the world’s largest producing oilfields, Rumaila.

Reuters