Iraq warns oil majors on June deadline

Rome: 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.

Iraq is negotiating five short-term oilfield service contracts worth around $500 million each aimed at boosting its output by around a quarter. The Opec member had hoped to sign the contracts in March.

"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 said.

BP Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil were negotiating a deal each. Shell is negotiating another deal together with BHP Billiton, while Chevron and Total together are working on a fifth deal.