Iraq's Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani met officials from 35 oil companies in London Monday to lay out details of its first round of bidding for new contracts since the 2003 US-led invasion.
He said Iraq wants deals to be in place in June, to help the war-torn country get its oil sector back up and running without further delay.
Shahristani said the government would maintain 51 percent control of projects with foreign energy companies to rehabilitate the six oil fields already producing crude, and two natural gas fields yet to be developed.
Iraq wants to ramp up output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the current average production of 2.5 million bpd, about equal to the amount being pumped before the March 2003 invasion.
Exports of 2.11 million bpd currently form the bulk of the country's revenues, and the oil ministry is keen to raise capacity over the next five years to 4.5 million bpd.
At the end of June, the oil ministry threw open six oilfields and two gas fields for international bidding by 41 companies.
The deals, which are service contracts only, pave the way for energy firms based abroad to return to Iraq 36 years after Saddam Hussein threw them out.
The International Energy Agency, in a report released in mid-2006, said only 10 percent of Iraq has been explored for oil and 60 percent of proven reserves are in undeveloped fields.
This report was complied with Dow Jones newswire.
