The Funniest News In The Business (SM)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Iraq Opens Bids For Oil Drilling To The World
But the information is seemingly based on 2008 data!

Posted in Business News, US News Now, World News: Iraq’s oil minister Monday opened international bidding on six oil fields that could increase the country’s oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day.

But the oil ministry continues to negotiate short-term no-bid contracts with several U.S. and European oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, Total SA, Chevron Corp., and BP — a step recently criticized by two U.S. lawmakers.

Oil Minister Hussein Shahrastani announced Monday that 35 international oil companies can bid on long-term contracts for redeveloping the six oil fields, as well as two natural gas fields.

Then based on old data that also mentioned the number 35 in relation to the accepted companies for the bidding process:

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil says that 35 companies from a list of 120 companies that submitted registration documentation have pre-qualified to participate in the first licensing round for field development contracts. The qualified companies are Anadarko Iraq Company, BG International, BHP Billiton Petroleum Pty Ltd, BP, Chevron Iraq Ltd, CNOOC China Ltd, CNPC, Conoco Phillips, Edison International SPA, ENI, ExxonMobil, Hess Corporation, Inpex Holdings, Japex, JSC Gazprom Neft, Kogas, Lukoil, Maersk, Marathon International Petroleum Ltd, Mitsubishi Corporation, Nexen Inc., Nippon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, ONGC, Petronas, Pertamina, Premier Oil, Repsol, Shell Iraq, Sinochem, Sinopic Group, StatoilHydro, Total, Wintershall Basf Group and Woodside Petroleum.