Iraq announces gas field auction

Iraq is to auction another 12 oil and gas fields to foreign companies in January 2012, Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi announced on Monday.The auction of seven gas and five oil fields is to be held "in the first month of 2012," Luaybi told reporters in Baghdad.

Iraq awarded two gas fields at a major international auction on Wednesday that the oil minister said was key to boosting the economy.The largest of the three fields up for sale went to a Kazakh and Korean consortium while the smallest went to a Turkish and Kuwaiti joint venture.The Korean Gas Corporation of South Korea and Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz won the 50-50 joint venture to develop the Akkaz field, in Anbar province west of Baghdad, which has reserves of about 158 billion cubic metres (5.6 trillion cubic feet).

Revenues from oil sales account for 95 percent of Iraq's income, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said on Tuesday, underlining the war-battered nation's reliance on crude to rebuild its economy.Shahristani said Iraq raised 171 billion dollars from sales between 2006-2009, which accounted for all but five percent of the government's income during those years."Oil accounted for 95 percent of government revenue," he told reporters in Baghdad, following estimates of about 85 percent.

Iraq awarded to a Kazakh and Korean consortium the first and largest of three gas fields up for sale at an international gas auction on Wednesday that the oil minister said was key to boosting the economy.The Korean Gas Corporation of South Korea and Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz won the 50-50 joint venture to develop the Akkaz field, in Anbar province west of Baghdad, which has reserves of about 158 billion cubic metres (5.6 trillion cubic feet).

Global energy majors are welcome to help develop oil and gas projects in Iran despite new sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic, a top official told reporters on Monday."We welcome all international companies, eastern or western. The oil industry cannot be deprived of cooperation," said Mohammad Hossein Mousavizadeh, adviser to Pars Oil and Gas Co, which is developing the giant South Pars fields in Gulf waters.

An oil dispute between Iraq and the autonomous northern region of Kurdistan has been resolved, the central government's oil minister said in Baghdad on Thursday."We reached an agreement with the Kurds that all revenues will be handed over to SOMO and the Iraqi government will be responsible for paying the extraction expenses in Kurdistan," Hussein al-Shahristani told reporters.SOMO is Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation which deals with sales of crude and other petroleum-based products.