Iraq Massive News Fields Are Up For Grabs In New Licensing Round

The still largely untapped gas resources of Iraq will be the key focus of a sixth round of exploration and development, with the announcement last week of the 11 gas (and oil) sites that will see licences assigned to bidding firms. Three elements in this new round of licensing are particularly striking.

First, the exploration and development of these sites are supposedly to enable Iraq to finally reduce the influence of Iran in all its critical state organs – political, economic, and military. Second, many of the licence sites are close to…