June 14, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1424

PARIS, June 13: Total, the French oil company, says it has been selected to acquire 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil, this following a call for bids regarding the sale of Iraqi crude, the first that was made following last month’s decision by the United Nations Security Council — supported by France — to lift the embargo on the sale of Iraqi oil.

The offer concerned two large stocks of oil, one situated in the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan located on the Mediterranean coast, the other at Mina al-Bakr on the Gulf.

The sale of the 9.5 million barrels of oil that were sold following the call for bids was overseen by Somo, the publicly-held Iraqi company charged with the sale of the country’s petroleum.

Four million barrels of the first lot of Iraqi petroleum was acquired by Chevron Texaco. In addition to Total, which agreed to buy two million barrels, the remaining 3.5 million barrels were acquired by Italian oil group ENI, Spain’s Cepsa and Repsol, as well as Turkish group Tupras.