Iraq: Cabinet Gives Green Light to Oil Deals

Iraq’s cabinet has given the green light to the Oil Ministry to sign agreements with international oil companies to help increase the nation’s crude output.
The two-year deals, known as technical support agreements, or TSAs, are designed to develop five producing fields to add 500,000 barrels per day to the country’s current 2.4 million barrels per day output.
Last December, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron Corp submitted technical and financial proposals for the five oil fields and received counterproposals from the Iraqi side.
In January, representatives from the companies and from Iraq met again in Amman, Jordan, and they will hold the third round of discussions later this month, an Iraqi official has told the Associated Press.
Iraq has not said what fields it will tender, or on what terms, but the service and extraction contracts on offer are seen as a stopgap until the controversial Oil Law is passed, and will not provide the long-term involvement big oil companies want