The Second Auction.

For the second auction, the Oil Ministry has invited 45 potential bidders to Istanbul at the end of August to give them details of the 16 oil and gas fields on offer - all found but undeveloped. Ameedi says: "The main difference is that the projects included in the second round of bidding are discovered, undeveloped fields".

The government has said it aims to increase Iraq's crude oil production to 6m b/d in the next six years. But officials say they need an extra $50 bn in investment in the sector to increase capacity to that extent.

Bob George of Houston-based Gaffney, Cline & Associates is advising the Oil Ministry's PCLD on the bid round. He says the round will be complex, with IOCs potentially bidding with different consortia, depending on which of the fields they are contesting. Total and Chevron are jointly compete with LUKoil of Russia for West Qurna's Phase-II, which has about 7.4 bn barrels of proven oil reserves.

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