Near the beginning of December, Bloomberg sources suggested that the French oil major Total SA was looking to rid itself of its 18% stake in the Sarsang exploration block in northern Iraqi Kurdistan. Now, Iraq’s oil ministry has signed an MOU with the oil giant to execute “large and promising projects” in Iraq, specifically in natural gas and clean energy, the country’s oil ministry said on Wednesday. Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanne was in the country at the time of the signing. Total already has a 22.5% interest in Iraq’s Halfaya oilfield in southern Iraq—and it is still holding onto, for now, that 18% Sarsang asset that it was rumored to be exiting. Also on Wednesday, Iraq’s state-run Dhiqar Oil Co announced that Lukoil’s trading arm Litasco would finance an oil project to double the capacity of the country’s Nassiriya oil project to 200,000 bpd. Iraq’s SOMO will pay Litasco […]