AFP reported that Mr Nuri al Maliki PM of Iraq as saying that oil giant ExxonMobil has promised to reconsider an exploration deal with Iraqi Kurdistan that Baghdad has strongly opposed.

Mr Maliki said that we had a meeting with in Washington and we discussed the contracts, some of which are located in disputed areas. They promised to reconsider their decision.

Kurdistan on October 18th 2011 inked a deal with ExxonMobil for it to explore 6 areas but Baghdad regards any contracts not signed with the central government as invalid.

An official with the Iraqi oil ministry said that two of the areas Al Qosh and Bardarash are actually parts of Nineveh province that Kurdistan wants to annex into its autonomous region, a move Baghdad opposes. The Kurdistan contract potentially puts an Exxon contract with the Iraqi government in jeopardy.

In January 2010, Iraq's oil ministry completed the deal with ExxonMobil and Anglo Dutch giant Shell to develop production at West Qurna 1 which with reserves of about 8.5 billion barrels is the country's second biggest field.

(Sourced from AFP)