The second licensing round in Iraq will invite tender for 14 oilfeeds, it has been announced.

Abdullah al-Amir, an oil advisor to Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, told Dow Jones Newswires that 14 fields will be made available, although he did not specify which would be offered.

His comments were made at a petroleum conference in London.

It is thought that the licensing round will get underway by June 2009, although the news agency notes that there are a number of major stumbling blocks which could delay or scupper the tender process.

Among these are the provincial elections which will be held next month, while further details about the contracts will need to be provided to energy companies before bidding can begin.

Meanwhile, a report from Bloomberg has indicated that Royal Dutch Shell's chief executive Jeroen van der Veer has expressed an interest in making a bid for Iraqi oil resources when the bidding process begins.

"They've just issued the rules on how to bid. It's quite complicated; we will study that and of course then we'll make up our mind on what we are going to do," he said.


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