The Iraqi Cabinet has approved the recommendation of the Ministerial Council for Energy for conducting a tender to drill 96 oil wells in Basra, a statement issued by the General Secretariat of the Cabinet announced.

The recommendation stated the transfer of the WQ 0991 tender contract to drill (96) wells in a turnkey manner in favor of Basra oil Company and ExxonMobil under the custody of Schlumberger, at a total cost of $480.5 million which is less by 14.4% than the estimated cost of $561.6 million.