Iraq has invited international bidders to develop its Mansuriya gas field near the Iranian border, Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar told the state news agency INA last week. The invitation comes after the 2018 termination of a contract with a group led by Turkey’s state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corp. that also included Kuwait Energy PLC and the Korean Gas Corp.

The contract’s repeal and renewed efforts to entice fresh bidders adds more pressure on the state after Jabbar said today that oil projects in the country are being delayed. The delays are caused by cuts demanded by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia (OPEC+) in an attempt to inject stability to global oil prices.

Iraq signed more than a dozen oil and gas field development contracts when it broadly opened the energy sector to development in 2010. The Turkish Petroleum-led consortium also included Kuwait Energy, an independent oil and gas exploration company focused on the Middle East and North Africa, and Korean Gas, a public natural gas company established by the South Korean government. 

The group won a bid in 2011 to develop the Mansuriya field. At the time, the consortium accepted the Iraqi Oil Ministry’s offer price of $7 per barrel of oil equivalent. Located in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, Mansuriya is near the country’s border with Iran and was the final field in Iraq’s energy auction that year.