Iraq has awarded a number of oil concessions to 22 international firms including one Iraqi company and three Chinese companies bidding for 29 oil and gas sites.

Iraq’s KAR Group won a concession site in the South-eastern Maysan governorate within new licensing rounds, the official news agency INA said on Sunday.

China’s Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group (ZPEC) was awarded an oilfield in East Baghdad while Zhenhua Oil won two sites in the Western Al-Anbar province and Najaf in Central Iraq, INA said.

Two other Chinese firms are: UEG, which was awarded a gas site in the Southern port of Basra, and Geo-Jade, which won a site in the Eastern Wasit province.

Iraqi oil minister Hayan Abdel Ghani said on Saturday the new projects could add nearly 3.459 billion cubic feet of gas per day (cf/d).

He said the new sites focus on gas and that the targeted output is nearly double Iraq’s gas imports from neighbouring Iran of around 1,700 million cf/d.

The oil discoveries in the new sites are expected to boost Iraq’s recoverable crude deposits to 160 billion barrels.

Iraq, OPEC’s second largest oil producer, currently controls the world’s fifth largest oil reserves of nearly 145 billion barrels after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Iran.

According to Aliqtisad News network, the bidders for the new Iraqi sites include eight companies from China, two each from the UAE, Russia and Turkey and one each from Italy, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, the UK, Netherlands, Qatar and Angola.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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