The Trading Floor

[Arctec]

AFX News Limited Friday, March 09, 2007


China National Petroleum Corp, the parent of PetroChina Co Ltd, is expected to obtain new exploration rights to the al-Ahdab oil field in Iraq, CNPC-owned China Oilnews said.

Assem Jihad, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, was quoted as saying that CNPC officials arrived in Iraq on March 6 to negotiate a new contract to jointly develop al-Ahdab.

After China won exploration rights to al-Ahdab in 1997, activities at the Related Pictures field were suspended due to UN sanctions and postwar security problems.

The field has projected reserves of up to 1 billion barrels, it said.

The 1997 contract was valued at US$700 million over 23 years. Planned oil production was 90,000 barrels per day.

In February, the Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft Oil Law aimed at encouraging international companies to exploit the country's petroleum reserves, estimated at about 115 billion barrels.
http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=42354