Iran and Iraq in future oil and gas drilling talks

Officials from Iran and Iraq have begun talks over possible future oil and gas drilling in Iraq, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.

"We are currently involved in negotiations with Iraqi officials in regard to beginning oil drilling operation in Iraq and we are trying to set up an office in Iraq," IRNA quoted Heidar Bahmani, an official of the state-owned National Iranian Drilling Company (NIOC), as saying in a report late on Sunday.

"We are awaiting the Iraqi government's positive response," he added.

Bahmani said Iran was able to compete with established foreign entities from the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China in Iraq's oil and gas sector.

Relations between the neighbours were strained when a small contingent of Iranian troops moved into an oilfield inside Iraqi territory in December, raising the Iranian flag over an inactive oil well.

The dispute, which Tehran called a "misunderstanding", ended in January when troops withdrew after talks between the two countries' foreign ministers.

Iran and Iraq, which share a border of almost 1,500 km (900 miles) fought an eight-year war in the 1980s. (Reuters)