Chevron Completes Deal to Acquire Iraq's Kurdistan Oil Block

Chevron Corp. has completed a transaction to acquire another oil exploration deal in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdistan region, the U.S. company said in a statement Monday.

Kurdistan has angered the central government in Baghdad by signing contracts directly with the likes of Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Total SA, providing lucrative production-sharing deals and better operating conditions than in the south. Baghdad argues it alone has the right to sign and control hydrocarbon deals with international oil companies.

The Kurdistan Regional Government awarded the Qara Dagh oil block to Chevron in January in a deal that builds on Chevron's two existing oil licenses in the region, which were acquired in July last year from Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd.

"Chevron will acquire an interest in and operationship of the Qara Dagh block production sharing contract from the Kurdistan Regional Government," the company said in a statement issued from Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan region.

The block lies southeast of Erbil and covers an area of about 861 square kilometers, it said.

The Iraqi central government has barred Chevron from having oil contracts in central and southern Iraq since the company bought stakes in the two oil-exploration blocks last year.