The Iraqi Oil Ministry said Thursday it has awarded a consortium led by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC a license to develop its West Qurna phase 1 oilfield.
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told a press conference that the agreement was "signed initially and will be inked officially within a week after the government approves it."
The oilfield has reserves of some 8.5 billion barrels, according to the Iraqi ministry figures.
The group has proposed to increase the oilfield production to 2. 325 million barrel per day (bpd) from the current production of about 279,000 bpd, Shahristani said.
Under the service contract, Exxon Mobil group would not share the oil production, but only be paid fees of 1.9 U.S. dollars per extra barrel
produced, the minister said.
On Tuesday, Iraq signed another major oil deal with Britain's BP and China's National Petroleum Company (CNPC) to develop its Rumaila oilfield in its southern area.
On June 30, Iraq offered eight of its oil and gas fields to foreign companies in its first-ever oil and gas field auction for decades.
However, until Tuesday, only one deal was concluded with Britain's BP and China's CNPC to develop super-giant Rumaila field, after other oil firms were reluctant to agree on the Iraqi oil ministry's stiff terms.
Iraq has the world's third-largest oil reserves. The country plans to increase crude production to 7 million barrels a day during the coming six years.
Currently, Iraq produces about 2.5 million barrels a day.