Following the approval of the 2022 budget, Iraq’s Basra Oil Company will acquire the largest share of Exxon Mobil’s stake in the southern West Qurna 1 oilfield, oil minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said, Reuters reported.

The Iraqi oil ministry had requested to purchase shares in the world’s largest oilfield, estimated to have more than 20 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, from U.S. energy giant Exxon in May 2021.