(Bloomberg) --

Basra Oil Co. will buy Exxon Mobil Corp.’s stake in the West Qurna-1 oil field in southern Iraq, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar told reporters on Sunday.

A final investment decision has been taken to acquire Exxon’s interest in the field, Jabbar said at an event in Baghdad. Iraq has been engaged in discussions with the US oil major for several months.

Exxon entered into an agreement to sell its 32.7% stake in West Qurna-1 to Chinese firms PetroChina Co. and Cnooc Ltd. in January last year, but failed to get the Iraqi government’s support for the deal.

Separately, TotalEnergies SE will start working on oil and solar power projects it previously agreed to develop by the end of July, said Jabbar. The work was scheduled to start last year, but some financial issues delayed execution. 

Iraq aims to export 3.8 million barrels a day of crude in June from all regions including Kurdistan, and wants to ship 3.85 million barrels a day in July, Jabbar said.

Iraq is “100% committed” to its OPEC output share, said the minister. OPEC’s second-largest producing member is allowed to produce as much as 4.51 million barrels a day this month and 4.58 million barrels in July according to its quota.

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