For the first time, international companies will be paid for oil production stemming from Iraq’s new generation of exploration contracts. Ahmed Haider Ahmed, business development manager of Kuwait Energy, drops his offer in a box during the fourth licensing round for exploration blocks at the Oil Ministry’s headquarters in Baghdad May 30, 2012. A consortium led by Kuwait Energy secured a deal to explore Block 9, a mainly oil area in southern Basra province. (THAIER AL-SUDANI/Reuters) Iraq achieved a significant milestone in its efforts to discover oil fields with the help of foreign companies, striking an agreement that will lead to rising production from a newly developed exploration block in Basra.Kuwait Energy and its consortium partners will receive their first payment for oil produced from exploration Block 9 by the middle of this year, according to a deal inked Sunday in Baghdad with Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). […]