Azerbaijan, Baku, March 13 / Trend, A.Taghiyeva /
Iraq and oil giant ExxonMobil have reached an agreement to expand work on the Qurna-1 field, a source in the government told Trend on Tuesday.
This agreement was reached after long negotiations as the company tried to get payment for work conducted on this field.
"Foreign companies operating in Iraq's oil sector as a rule prefer to be paid in the form of oil. However, ExxonMobil insisted on changing the contract and receiving payment directly by money," the source said.
He said Iraq has agreed to pay about $900 million for the work conducted last year on the Qurna-1 field and has already transferred about $400 million to the company's accounts.
According to BP, the proven oil reserves in Iraq in early 2011 amounted to 115 billion barrels, which makes the country third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Major oil fields of Iraq are Rumaila, Zubair, Nahr Umr, Maynun and West Qurna located in the south of the country. About 80 per cent of oil produced in the country is exported.