The Iraqi government has postponed the oil and gas bidding round for 11 new blocks located in border areas with Iran and Kuwait and in offshore Persian gulf waters from 15 to 25 April. In this respect, interested companies will have more time to submit the bid bonds and be prepared for the bidding. The auction will be held under a new framework: the new contracts will introduce a royalty element, establish a linkage between the oil price and the remuneration and exclude oil by-products from the companies' revenues.
Companies operating in Iraq, such as BP, ExxonMobil, Total, Shell and Lukoil, receive a fee from the central government linked to production increase, comprising both crude oil and oil by-products such as dry gas and LPG. The reason behind the contracts change is the glut caused by the oil price collapse in 2014. In 2017, Iraq's production reached approximately 4.7 mb/d, up from 2.5 mb/d a decade earlier.