--KRG signed oil and gas exploration deal with ExxonMobil
--Deal is final and binding, KRG oil minister says
(Adds Kurdish PM comments in paragraphs 5, 6.)
ERBIL, North Iraq (Dow Jones)--Kurdish oil minister Ashti Hawrami Sunday confirmed that the Kurdistan Regional Government had signed agreements with ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) to explore for oil and gas in six blocks in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
"It is signed and completed on October 18. It is final and binding," Hawrami said.
Hawrami said the six exploration blocks awarded to ExxonMobil are: Al Qush, northwest of Erbil city and formerly assigned to Komet Group but withdrawn for lack of development; Bashiqa, southeast of Al Qush town; Pirmam in Erbil; Betwata; Qura-Hanjeer, southwest of Chamchamal; and a sixth block located along the border with Iran near the Penjwin border crossing.
The federal government in Baghdad has warned ExxonMobil that it could lose its current contract to develop the West Qurna oil field in Iraq if it signed additional deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The KRG's prime minister Barham Salih earlier Sunday said he was surprised by comments from oil ministry officials in Baghdad Friday, saying that U.S. giant Exxon Mobil should choose between its recently-signed deals in Kurdistan and its contract in southern Iraq.
"I am surprised at this stand from Baghdad. I was expecting our colleagues in Baghdad to approve the deal as an opportunity to unify our oil policy," Salih said.
ExxonMobil so far has declined to comment.
A number of smaller foreign companies already produces oil in Iraq's Kurdish region, but Exxon Mobil is the first of the major international oil companies to reach an agreement. The KRG is embroiled in a long and often contentious dispute with Iraq's central government over who has the right to issue oil exploration licenses in the region.
Iraq's central government sent ExxonMobil three warning letters before it signed its deal to explore for oil and gas with the KRG, Abdul Mahdy Al Ameedi, head of petroleum contracts and licensing directorate at the central oil ministry, told Dow Jones Newswires Friday. The letters stressed that, according to central government regulations, any company that signs deals with the KRG won't be allowed to work in the country's center and south, Iraqi oil officials said.
ExxonMobil is already producing around 370,000 barrels a day of oil from the West Qurna field in southern Iraq, under a service contract with the Baghdad government.
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