SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Hallibrton denied an Iraqi official’s comments that it had proposed buying Exxon Mobil’s stake in Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield.
Deputy manager of Iraq’s Basra Oil Co. (BOC) Hassan Mohammed said last week that Halliburton had submitted a proposal to buy Exxon’s stake in the southern West Qurna 1 field, Reuters reported.
Mohammed, however, said the Iraqi government’s preferred option was for BOC itself to buy Exxon’s stake in the field.
“We are not buying an oil field and are not partnering to buy an oil field,” Halliburton Spokesman Emily Mir was quoted as saying by Reuters on Wednesday.
“We do not typically discuss commercial terms for bids or tenders, but in this case we want to be clear that we are not buying any fields,” Mir added.
Iraq said in April that Exxon was seeking to sell its 32.7% stake in West Qurna 1, and that the oil ministry had started discussions over a possible deal.
