Shell and BP agree to Iraqi oil deal
BP and Anglo-Dutch group Shell have both agreed to buy 10 mm barrels of Iraqi crude, the companies said, the first
long-term deal for Iraq's oil since the end of war.
"We can confirm that we've been offered by SOMO (Iraq's State Oil Marketing Corporation)... a term contract from
August 1 which will go through until December 31," a Shell spokeswoman said. "It's to receive one very large crude
carrier of 2 mm barrels per month for five months of Basrahh light crude," she said. The oil would be shipped from
the Gulf export terminal at Mina al-Bakr in southern Iraq, she added.
A BP spokesman confirmed that the company had signed a similar detail for 10 mm barrels over five months. Both BP and
Shell bought 2 mm barrels each of Iraqi crude in a separate deal earlier.
This was the first sale of Iraqi crude produced since the end of the war to oust Saddam Hussein, declared over on May
1 by US President George W. Bush.
