Iraq may drop oil deals if not inked by June

ROME, April 22 (Reuters) - Iraq may drop oil service deals with oil majors if they fail to sign the contracts by June, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Tuesday. "June is a bit late, if they are not ready by then we might not really require technical service contracts...we may drop them if they are not signed soon," he told reporters. Iraq will offer long term development contracts on producing fields in a first bidding round this summer, although the contracts would be based on a service contract model, he said. He declined to give the length of the contracts.

Iraq has disqualified companies that have oil deals with the Kurdish government from bidding in the first round, the minister said.

"Any company that breaks Iraqi laws would not qualify for the contracts, the computer would automatically disqualify them," he said. "We have informed the companies ahead of time."

(Rome IEF newsroom +3906 35094254)