The Iraqi government is moving ahead with plans to open the nation’s oil fields to international oil companies. Earlier today, the Iraqi Oil Ministry said Iraq and a group led by Exxon Mobil will sign a final deal next week for the development of the West Qurna oilfield that contains nearly nine billion barrels of oil. Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell signed a final contract on Sunday to develop Iraq’s Majnoon oilfield, one of the world’s biggest largely untapped fields. Shell’s chief executive, Peter Voser, traveled to Iraq for the signing ceremony.

Peter Voser: “We have been working in Iraq for around fifty years, and we look forward to actually come back and bring our technology and our people into Iraq in order to actually develop the oilfields of Iraq, in order to actually bring the oil to the worldwide customers.”