Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP, the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company, along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields, the report said quoting an American diplomat and officials from the ministry and oil company.
The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations, the New York Times reported.
The no-bid contracts, the paper said, are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in India, Russia and China.
The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production, it added.
There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract, the report noted.
The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq's Oil Ministry, the Times added.
