Iraq's PM says no more oilfields for foreign companies

Iraq's prime minister has said that there are no further plans to use foreign firms to develop its oilfields beyond ones auctioned off last year, Reuters has reported. Nuri al-Maliki said said Iraq should start thinking about developing its national oil firms and warned of 'staying captive in the hands of foreign oil firms'. 'I told the oil minister during a cabinet meeting that we will never sign any more contracts with foreign oil companies,' Maliki told supporters at a rally in the southern oil hub of Basra, weeks before a parliamentary election on March 7.