Iraq cancels latest oilfield meeting

Iraq’s cabinet has cancelled a meeting in which it was expected to approve deals with major IOCs for the West Qurna and Zubair oilfields, because too many officials were out of town, Reuters has reported.

A decision on the deals was expected to be made at last Tuesday’s meeting but Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the decision would be delayed until yesterday. The decision now appears to have been delayed again.

A spokesperson for the Iraqi government revealed that 11 ministers were traveling outside of the county this week.

The Zubair and West Qurna deals are two of the major contracts Iraq is signing with global oil companies in an effort to boost current oil production of around 2.5 million bpd to around three times that level within six or seven years.

If this plan is completed successfully, Iraq will be the world’s third largest oil producer.