Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday opened a major auction involving large international energy firms for 10 of Iraq's oil fields.
The auction, which had been due to kick off at 07am SA time but was delayed by around two hours, was being conducted in a large hall at the oil ministry, with separate areas marked out for bidding firms, government officials and other guests.
It was to deal with one field at a time — five on Friday and the other five on Saturday.
A tight security perimeter surrounded the ministry offices, with some attendees having to abandon their cars around two kilometres (more than a mile) away and walk the remaining distance.
All participants were subjected to multiple checks before being allowed to enter.
The fields on offer in the two-day award of contracts are largely undeveloped, and include the West Qurna-2 and Majnoon fields, which have estimated reserves of 12.9 and 12.6 billion barrels of oil respectively.
Among the 44 companies involved are energy giants BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total and Shell, along with an array of Chinese and Indian firms, a sign of the Asian giants' growing hunger for natural resources.
Successful companies will be paid a fixed fee per barrel, not a share of the profits, and it will only be paid once an agreed production threshold has been reached.
