IN BRIEF (Page 14)

Iraq oil deal

China and Iraq have reached an agreement on a $3 billion deal to exploit oil in the Middle Eastern country. The agreement revives a 1997 contract that granted China exploration rights to the Al-Ahdab oilfield in the province of Wassit, just south of Baghdad.

Planned oil production was then 90,000 barrels per day, and State-owned China National Petroleum Corp had been expected to win the new exploration rights.