(AXC.L) Addax Petroleum Corporation Buy/Sell

BEIJING/LONDON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - China's Sinopec Group is trying to communicate with Baghdad as its qualification to participate in Iraq's second round of bidding for major oil deals is in question, a company official and media reported.
A top Iraqi official said early this month that Iraq has barred the Chinese state oil firm from new oil talks over its purchase of Swiss firm Addax that is active in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
"Our people were communicating with the Iraqi side. I've heard no results so far," Huang Wensheng, Sinopec's spokesman, told Reuters on Thursday.
"We are still actively preparing for the second round of bidding. We value highly this opportunity and want to contribute to Iraq's post-war rebuild," Zhou Yuqi, head of Sinopec's overseas exploration and production unit, was quoted as saying by Caijing magazine on Friday.
Sinopec has already missed out on one big opportunity to be part of the consortium to develop the giant Zubair oilfield, which the Iraqi oil ministry awarded earlier this week to Italy's oil, gas firm ENI.

"Sinopec is not any more part of the original consortium," ENI's Chief Executive Paulo Scaroni told Reuters this week. "The government asked us to exclude them considering their involvement in kurdistan."
Zubair, one of the largest Iraqi oilfields, produces 195,000 barrels per day and expects to reach a plateau of 1.125 million bpd under a seven-year development plan that would cost some $10 billion, ENI has said.

Iraq's oil ministry had been waiting for an explanation from Sinopec about its dealings with Addax, which has been pumping oil from Kurdistan's Taq Taq field, Abudul-Mahdy al-Ameedi, deputy director of Iraq's contracts and licensing has said.
Sinopec took part in the ministry's first oil bidding round, which landed only one deal, giving BP and China's top energy group CNPC a contract to develop the giant Rumaila field.
For Sinopec to get back to the talks, it may need Beijing's involvement, said a western oil executive involved in the bidding process.
"They (Sinopec) are hoping to resolve the issue before any subsequent bid rounds," the oil executive said.
"The situation is not that bad for them. It's easier for this to be resolved through government-to-government talks than it would be if it was a company. And as things stand, the Chinese have a stake now in both the Kurdish region and the south through other companies."

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu in Beijing, Tom Bergin in London and Simon Webb in Dubai; editing by James Jukwey)

((aizhu.chen@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: aizhu.chen.reuters.com@reuters.net; +8610 6627 1211)) Keywords: SINOPEC IRAQ/ (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

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