Iraq’s Oil Ministry is assessing applications from five new companies to be added to its prequalified bidders list for its planned Nasiriya Integrated Project bid round in December.

The new firms include:

• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• Essar (India)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Pak-Arab Refinery (Pakistan/UAE)
• Maurel et Prom (France)

The ministry’s Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate (PCLD) had already qualified 52 international oil companies, according to its director-general, Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi.

These include 45 firms qualified from Iraq’s previous bid rounds and seven more announced in March. The Oil Ministry plans to hold the Nasiriya Integrated Project bid round on 19 December.