Iraq will allow international companies access to 13 oil and gas reserves

This year, in an effort to boost reserves and revenue, Iraq aims to let foreign entrepreneurs access more of its undeveloped oil and gas resources. The Oil Ministry said on Monday that Iraq, a member of Opec, will submit 13 locations for a round of bidding.

Eight of those are oil and gas fields, while five are locations for exploration. In northern, central, and southern Iraq, there are many locations.

Companies have until June 15 to submit their interest statements and supporting documentation for the certification procedure, according to ministry spokesperson Assim Jihad.

The bidding round has not yet had a date established.

According to Mr. Abdel Ghani, the upcoming round would be an addendum to the fifth bidding round held in 2018. Then, only seven of the 11 suggested blocks and fields were chosen. Iraq started luring foreign oil corporations to explore its resources in 2009, encouraged by an improvement in the security situation.

The top major oil firms are Exxon Mobil of the United States, Royal Dutch Shell, BP of the United Kingdom, CNPC of China, and Lukoil of Russia. Iraq has already granted dozens of oil contracts to develop significant fields that include more than half of its 145.02 billion barrels of proven reserves. There were additional contracts issued to access natural gas deposits.

Iraq's daily output and exports have therefore increased to levels unseen since the discovery of oil in the first quarter of the previous century. The nation currently produces over 4.6 million barrels per day from oilfields under the authority of Baghdad, up from little under 2.4 million per day in 2009, and its daily exports last month averaged 3.28 million barrels.

Opec's second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia is Iraq. The majority of the nation's budget—nearly 95%—is made up of oil money. Iraq purchases 1,200 megawatts of energy and enough natural gas to create 2,800MW from Iran, covering roughly one-third of its demands as it struggles to fulfill the rising demand for electricity, especially during the summer.