The new agreement will be a service contract, under which China will not be a partner in profits and instead will be paid for its work
Iraq and China will sign a deal next week to develop the Ahdab oil field, restoring an agreement that was canceled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, an Iraqi spokesman said Thursday.
The Shiite-dominated Wasit province, where the billion-barrel field is located, has been the scene of sporadic attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Saddam Hussein's regime defied United Nations sanctions that limited direct dealings with Iraq's oil industry and signed a deal in 1997 with the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.
That contract, worth $1.2 billion, gave a subsidiary of the Chinese company concessions to develop the field on a production-sharing basis for 22 years.
The new agreement will be a service contract, under which China will not be a partner in profits and instead will be paid for its work.
