The Iraqi Oil Ministry stressed on that it was reviving an oil contract worth 1.2 billion dollars had been concluded with China, but was cancelled after the invasion of United States of America against Iraq in spring 2003.
The ministry said in a statement that an agreement in principle with China will sign at the end of this month to develop the field "Al Ahdab" located south of the capital Baghdad, and has stored billion barrels.
And with this development it will be the first working contract followed the overthrow of the former President Saddam Hussein.
The news agency Associated Press transported that the former regime had signed the contract in 1997 with the Chinese national oil company in spite of sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Iraq.
The agency said that the statement came following a meeting between Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahrastani and the Chinese ambassador in Baghdad, without revealing more details.
Iraq already owns an oil reserve of at least 115 billion barrels of oil, including making it the second or third in size over the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran.
A number of experts believe that Baghdad can pump more than six million barrels of oil to world markets every day, making it also the third largest producer at the international level after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
However, Iraq's export capacity of no more than two million barrels now, after decades of wars and lack of maintenance, noting that the country had produced late seventies of the last century, 3.5 million barrels a day.
(Iraq Directory)
