Iraq renews oil deal with CNPC

Iraq’s oil minister said the country’s first major oil contract with a foreign firm since the fall of Saddam Hussein will be a 20-year oil service contract worth up to US$3 billion with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Reuters reported. Iraq and CNPC have renegotiated the terms of a 1997 deal to pump oil from the Ahdab oilfield. CNPC, which is the parent company of PetroChina, is Asia’s biggest oil and gas company. The new contract is a set-fee service deal, rather than the oil production sharing agreement signed in 1997. The new contract calls for 110,000 barrels per day, up from the previous target of 90,000.