Iraq, which holds the world's second largest oil reserve, today said the oil fields awarded by the Saddam Hussein regime to Indian companies will have to clear the new law that the oil rich nation plans to pass in two months."We do want Indian entities to explore in our country. Iraqi government is, however, passing a new law and all contracts or oil field awarded previously will have to be vetted under the new law," Iraq Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here.India is keen on starting work on onshore Block 8 that was awarded to ONGC Videsh , the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), by the Saddam Hussein regime.It also wants the US-back government in Iraq to honour the award of the Tuba oilfield to a consortium of OVL, Reliance Industries and Sonatrach of Algeria. The consortium was short-listed by the Saddam Hussein regime before the US invasion of Iraq.Iraqi Minister said the law has been passed by the cabinet, and it would now go to Parliament for approval, which would take a couple of months.Baghdad has invited Indian companies to build two refineries in Kirkuk and Missan each with a capacity of 100,000 barrels per day.
