Baghdad, June 13: Iraq on Thursday concluded its first oil sales since the US-led war, awarding a tender to sell 10 million barrels of crude held in storage with only one U.S. company among the six winners. The tender was awarded to Spanish refiners Repsol and Cepsa, Turkey's Tupras, Italy's ENI and French oil firm Total. ChevronTexaco was the only U.S. company.
Iraq's oil sales, which pre-war accounted for around four percent of world exports at around 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd), have been halted since U.S.-led forces invaded in mid-March.

Of the 10 million barrels sold from storage in Turkey, 5.5 million will go to the European market and 4 million to the U.S., said Mohammed al-Jibouri, Director-General of Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO)
The remaining 500,000 barrels will be left for "tolerance", meaning to be sold at the seller's discretion, Jibouri added. Bureau Report