Iraq is in direct talks with the world's largest oil companies and is prepping for a first round of bids to develop its oil fields.

Iraq's reserves, the third largest in the world, are producing about 2.3 million barrels per day, and Iraq Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the direct talks will help boost that to 2.8 million bpd by the end of the year.

The Middle East Economic Survey confirms widespread reports that top officials at Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron met last week in Amman with a delegation from Baghdad, led by Natiq al-Bayati, the Oil Ministry's director general of the Petroleum Contracts & Licensing Directorate.

Shahristani said contracts will be signed "within a few weeks," MEES reports. The technical service agreements will dedicate expertise, training and equipment to a handful of Iraq's oldest and largest fields.

Iraq has given a Feb. 18 deadline for any interested oil firms to pre-register to be considered for more extensive contracts to develop Iraq oil fields, which Shahristani said will be an open bidding and transparent process. It's expected to take place later this year.

Oil companies are interested, as evidenced by continual discussions with the Oil Ministry over the past five years and the upcoming bidding round. But security and legal questions remain.

"It is a country of interest to us but we are waiting for political and security stability to return before we will take anything further," a BP spokesman told The Guardian, confirming the Jordan meeting.

"We are in the race so to say, we would like to work in Iraq," Shell Chief Executive Officer Jeroen van der Veer said last week, the Financial Times reports, "but the petroleum law is not ratified so we don't know the conditions. We would like to know the rules of the game."

MEES quoted a source from one of the Big Oil firms that there are concerns on "rates of return, how these contracts are going to be structured, will they be honored. There are concerns over Parliament's reaction in the absence of a hydrocarbon law."

The draft oil law is in a major holdup, however. The central and Kurdish regional governments dispute the extent of control over Iraq's oil sector. The Kurds are so frustrated they passed a regional oil law and have signed dozens of production-sharing contracts.

Iraq's oil unions and civil society organizations around the world have taken the oil law to task for allowing contracts such as the PSCs, which they fear will lead to control over Iraq's oil by oil companies.

A Middle East oil conference in London Tuesday, where Iraqi, British and industry oil leaders attended, was met by protesters who fear Iraq's oil wealth will be squandered.