Little noticed during the furor of recent battles in Basra and Baghdad was the announcement by Iraq's Oil Ministry that 35 oil companies from 17 countries had qualified for consideration in the first round of Iraqi oil field development contracts.

The U.S. led the list with seven qualifiers — Anadarko, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, ExxonMobil, Hess Corp., Marathon and Occidental Petroleum. China and Japan placed four and Britain had three, including BP Amoco PLC (formerly British Petroleum).

All of the oil companies who have signed deals in the north with the Kurdish Regional Government are blacklisted from programs with the central government. ... Read full article