In search of investment dollars, Iraq is working with China to revive an oil deal first signed by Saddam Hussein and Beijing in 1997, Baghdad's oil minister said Saturday, according to a media report.
Next month, officials will nail down the details of the $1.2 billion deal, which involves developing an oil field called al-Ahdab, in Iraq's southern region, said Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, the Associated Press reported.
The upsurge in violence in Iraq has made the country less attractive to U.S.-based and other Western oil companies, so Iraq courted China, a country which appears more willing to invest in potentially risky regions, the AP said.
China National Petroleum Corp., a state-owned firm, originally signed the deal in 1997, when United Nation's sanctions prohibited dealing with Iraq's oil industry. While China was waiting for sanctions to end, the U.S. invaded Iraq, according to the report.
Contracts signed between Baghdad and other energy producers during that time must also be renegotiated, the AP said.
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