Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch energy group, on Friday won the right to develop Iraq"s giant Majnoon oil field, beating French major Total, which has long coveted the field. Shell accepted a fee of $1.39 a barrel and promised to boost the field"s production to 1.8m barrels a day from just 46,000 b/d currently, CNN quoted The Financial Times as saying. Shell will operate the project and hold a 45 per cent share, with Petronas, Malaysia"s state oil company, having a 30 per cent share and the rest being held by Iraq. Shell has already won the right to help Exxon Mobil repair the giant West Qurna 1 field, which was part of a previous Iraqi auction round held earlier this year. In a two-day event that started under heightened security on Friday, Iraq will auction the rights to develop 10 of its biggest largely undeveloped oil and gas reservoirs. Only three of the 10 fields are currently producing.
