Nippon Oil in Baghdad for Nassiriya oilfield talks

BAGHDAD, Nov 22 - Executives from a consortium led by Japan's Nippon Oil Corp <5001.T> met officials from the Iraqi Oil Ministry on Sunday to iron out an $8 billion deal to develop the Nassiriya oilfield, an Iraqi official said.

The Japanese delegation went to the Oil Ministry for the talks, said Sabah Abdul Kadhim, head of the legal and commercial section of the ministry's Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate.

"Today, talks resumed with representatives from Nippon, Inpex and Japan international bank to discuss the contractual and financial terms of the Nassiriya deal," said Abdul Kadhim.

Nippon Oil Corp and its partners oil explorer Inpex Corp <1605.T> and plant engineering firm JGC Corp <1963.T> have been on the short-list to develop Nassiriya for months, but some financial aspects of the deal have held up a final accord.

The Japanese companies and their financiers had been expected to seal the deal several weeks ago but their executives declined to leave the safety of the vicinity of Baghdad airport, a heavily fortified area, according to Iraqi officials.

Iraqi officials, meanwhile, were too busy signing deals downtown with other oil majors to venture out to where the Japanese were.

Iraqi officials say Nassiriya has the potential to produce 100,000 barrels of oil per day within 18 months.

Abdul Kadhim said the current talks with Nippon could last for two or three days and inking an agreement depended on the progress of the talks.

"If we reach a common understanding on issues under discussion, a deal could be signed with the Nippon consortium at the end of the talks," he said. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Michael Christie and Jon Loades-Carter) ((michael.christie@thomsonreuters.com; +964 7901 917 030; Reuters Messaging: michael.christie.reuters.com@reuters.net))