A Kuwaiti-led energy consortium on Wednesday won the right to search for oil and gas in southern Iraq as part of the country's fourth energy auction. Two natural gas exploration deals meanwhile attracted no bidders. Exploration rights in a dozen areas of the country are on offer in the two-day auction, with 39 foreign energy companies registered to compete. In an opening speech, Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul-Karim Elaibi said exploration of the areas up for bidding will increase Iraq's oil reserves and help the country develop its natural gas industry. The ministry will "spare no efforts to help and support the companies as partners to achieve the common interests," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. Wednesday's auction started with no one bidding for an 8,000-square-kilometer (3,100-square-mile) block in northwestern Iraq with presumed natural gas fields. Another potential natural gas lot covering 9,000 square kilometers (3,500 square miles) of southwestern Iraq also found no interest. Government officials said the two blocks would be offered again Thursday, saying companies interested in those areas couldn't make it to Baghdad. In a third bid, Kuwait Energy and its partners, Turkey's TPAO and the UAE's Dragon Oil, won the rights to explore a 900-square-kilometer (350-square-mile) area in Iraq's oil-rich southern Basra province.
