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Oil Majors To Meet Iraqis Thursday To Discuss Tech Pacts-Official
By Hassan Hafidh
Amman, 23 January 2008 (Dow Jones)

An Iraqi Oil Ministry delegation will meet in Amman later this week with senior executives from five oil majors to discuss the possibility of signing technical support agreements to help develop five oil fields, an Iraqi oil ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

"A delegation from the Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate will be in Amman later this week to meet with five well-known international companies," Assem Jihad told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview from Baghdad.

Jihad didn't name these companies but a former Iraqi senior oil official who is still close to the oil ministry said they were BP PLC (BP), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB), ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX), and Total SA (TOT).

Jihad said the Amman meetings would be the second round of talks Iraq is holding with these companies. The first was held in December last year, he said.

"If they reach conclusions they could sign technical agreements if not they would meet again in a third round," the official said.

These new agreements would help increase production in five producing oil fields which could include Rumeila and Missan in the south, Kirkuk in the north and East Baghdad in the center, Iraqi oil officials had said before.

These technical support agreements could be the first step before awarding service contracts to these companies to develop oil fields, the Iraqi officials said.

-By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; + 962 777 612 111; hassan.hafidh@ dowjones.com

http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/26513