Shahristani will meet Monday in London with representatives of international oil companies for the country's first round of bidding for new contracts since the US-led invasion in 2003, his spokesman said. Last April, the war-torn country chose 35 oil companies out of the 120 that applied to participate in the bidding round to develop six major oil fields and two gas fields. Topping the list are the world's oil giants: Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP PLC, ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total. Later, six state-run oil companies were added to the list and a British company was dropped since it did not submit the required documents. The prequalification process covered legal, financial, technical, training, and health and safety aspects. A variety of documents such as tax, legal and work records, including lists of upstream projects for the past five years, production rates and investments, had to be presented. Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said that the purpose of London's meeting is to present the international oil companies with data and details for fields on offer which were announced end of June and the forms of the contracts. “In light of these information, the companies will be in a better position to submit their bids which are planned to be approved by next summer,” Jihad told The Associated Press. He said the ministry signed a contract last June with consultant Gaffney Cline and Associates to help package the field data and the forms of the contract. Another Oil Ministry official said the ministry will give the companies a six-month timetable from the receipt of data and other details to submit their bids. It plans to announce winners in June 2009. The fields are Bai Hassan and Kirkuk in northern Iraq and Rumaila, Zubair, West Qurna Stage -1- and Missan oil fields, which includes Buzurgan, Fauqa (or Fakkah) and Abu Gharab in the south. In addition to Akkas gas field in western Iraq and the Mansouria gas field in the east. The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to publicize information before Monday's meeting, said it will be a 20-year service contract. He added that the companies have been categorized into three categories: the first can bid as operators, the second can bid to operate all the fields except Kirkuk, a complex field with a fractured reservoir and sour gas. While the third cannot bid only as part of a consortium, and cannot lead a consortium and this likely to be the six state-run oil companies. Iraq sits on more than 115 billion barrels of oil, but decades of wars, UN sanctions, violence and sabotage have battered its oil industry. Iraq is trying to bring in foreign companies to help increase crude output from the current 2.5 million barrels a day to 4.5 million barrels a day by the end of 2013.
