SK, KNOC bid for Iraqi oil licenses

SK Energy Company, Korea’s biggest oil refiner, and state-run Korea National Oil Corporation bid for licenses to develop oil reserves in southern Iraq, Yonhap News reported, citing government officials that it didn’t identify.
Iraq, holder of the world’s third-largest crude oil reserves, said on Feb. 18 that more than 70 global companies made bids for the country’s first round of exploration and production licenses offered since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Iraq, which didn’t identify the bidders, is scheduled to announce the results next month.
Iraq has an estimated 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, placing it behind Saudi Arabia and Iran, according to BP Plc.
To protest an oil development deal Korea signed with the Kurdish semi-autonomous government in northern Iraq in November, Iraq’s central government provisionally suspended crude oil exports to SK Energy in January.
Bloomberg