Total is interested in developing the Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq which Shell is planning to exit, the Iraqi oil ministry said on Friday.

A senior Total executive communicated the French company’s interest in a meeting with Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi in Baghdad, the ministry said in a statement.

Total also expressed an interest in investing in the Nassiriya oil and gas project which provides for upstream and downstream development in the southern Iraqi region. 

Shell to relinquish operations 
Royal Dutch Shell said last month it had agreed with Iraq’s oil ministry to relinquish operations at the Majnoon field to the government after unfavorable changes to fiscal terms.

Petrochina has also expressed interest in developing the Nassiriya oil refinery in southern Iraq, the oil ministry said in a statement on Friday.

A Petrochina executive expressed the company’s interest at a meeting with Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi in Baghdad.

The refinery is part of a larger project to develop the Nassiriya region’s oil and gas reserves.

The plan provides for increasing the fields’ output and the processing of their production at the new Nassiriya refinery, and to recover the associated gas to supply power stations or process it for exports.