CNPC Talks To U.S. Firms On Iraq Oil Bids-Source

The giant oilfields on offer in Iraq`s first bidding round hold more than a third of the country`s 115 billion barrels of oil reserves.

Chinese oil firm CNPC is in talks with U.S. energy companies to team up to bid for oil and gas deals in Iraq, a CNPC source said on Saturday.

Iraq holds the world's third-largest reserves and has offered six of its largest producing oil fields and two gas fields in a bidding round for international energy companies. CNPC is among 32 of the world's largest oil and gas firms competing for the fields.((For a FACTBOX on companies competing click [ID:nLE98713]))

"We are talking to U.S. firms about working together," the source told Reuters on the sidelines of a workshop in Istanbul hosted by Iraq for companies bidding. "CNPC would like to compete for all of the oil and gas fields on offer." He declined to name the companies with whom CNPC was talking.

The Chinese firm signed last year the first major oil contract in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. It started work on the $3 billion Adhab oilfield in January.

The giant oilfields on offer in Iraq's first bidding round hold more than a third of the country's 115 billion barrels of oil reserves.