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Exxon, meanwhile, drew Baghdad's ire in October when it signed deals with the Kurds to search for oil in six sites, including some that cover areas located in land claimed by both Kurds and Arabs. Baghdad responded by preventing the Irving, Texas-based company from taking part in Iraq's fourth energy bidding round in May. But it has not touched Exxon's deal to develop the 8.6 billion West Qurna field near the southern city of Basra along with Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Since 2008, Iraq's central government has awarded 15 oil and gas deals to international energy companies, the first major investments in the country's energy industry in more than three decades. The original goal was to boost daily production from about 3 million barrels now to 12 million barrels by 2017. That may be revised downward to fewer than 10 million barrels, however, given infrastructure bottlenecks and a possible drop in international demand.
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