Baghdad has launched a licensing round for exploration, development and production contracts on nine blocks in areas bordering Iran and Kuwait, one of them offshore. Oil minister Jabbar Ali Hussein Al-Luiebi on 27 November said the government planned to offer different contract terms from previous licensing rounds, indicating a move away from the service contracts used since 2003 in which Baghdad has paid international oil companies (IOCs) a fixed fee for each barrel produced, regardless of prevailing market prices.
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