"We have decided last week to launch a third round, this time for gas," Abdelmahdi al-Amidi, director general of the oil ministry's petroleum contracting and licensing directorate, told MEES.

"We are in the first stage of planning and there has been no decision on a timeline," Amidi was quoted as saying in the oil and gas newsletter's latest issue, which is to appear on Monday.

Last year, Iraq awarded contracts to international oil majors to develop 10 large oil fields in an attempt to ramp up its crude production capacity to 12 million barrels per day by 2017, from around 2.5 million bpd now.

Combined, the three gas fields have over 7.5 trillion cubic feet (210 billion cubic metres) of proven free gas reserves.

They are the 4.5 tcf (trillion cubic feet) Akkaz field in the western province of Anbar, the Mansuriya field in Diyala with three tcf and Sibba field in Basra with 60 billion cubic feet, MEES said, adding that 15 firms have been pre-qualified and invitations will be issued soon.

Akkaz and Mansuriya were on offer in the first round of bidding last June but were not awarded. Mansuriya received no bids while bids for Akkaz were highly exaggerated.

Meanwhile, Iraq's oil ministry is preparing to hold a major meeting in July with all the international companies that were awarded contracts last year to hammer out some problems.

"There is going to be a big meeting. It is only natural that there are problems. There are 10 major projects and their magnitude is huge," ministerial advisor and former head of South Oil Co Jabbar al-Laibi told MEES.

"The question is, how do you achieve the plateau? It is not only the technical challenge, but also the managerial challenge and then there is the infrastructure that needs to be built."

"I am not criticising the minister or anyone, but there are a lot of things that are not right ... We need to sit down and work things out. They need to be sorted in a good manner," he said.

Amidi also said the impact of potential quota obligations imposed on Iraq by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries is emerging as a major concern for foreign investors.

Iraq, which has the world's third-largest oil reserves at 115 billion barrels, is a member of OPEC but is currently excluded from its quota system, meaning it may produce and export as much as it can.

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