Baghdad, July 1 (QNA)- Iraq’s first big effort to attract foreign investment to its oil sector met stiff resistance from companies on Tuesday. Only BP of the UK and China’s CNPC were willing to agree to Baghdad’s tough terms, allowing them to win a bid to turn the country’s Rumaila field into the world’s second largest, reported the Financial Times Wednesday. In a process billed as crucial to Iraq’s economic future, seven other oil and gas fields, including the highly sought after West Qurna field, failed to attract bids favourable enough to meet Iraq’s conditions. The auction underlines the difficulties faced by Baghdad as it seeks to rebuild the state. Pressure is likely to increase on Hussein Shahristani, the oil minister, who is already under fire for failing to show progress in the dilapidated oil industry since the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein. In the countdown to the US-lead invasion of Iraq, Bush administration officials predicted Iraq would be able to meet its own postwar reconstruction needs within months. Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defence secretary, told a congressional panel in 2003 that oil revenues could bring between $50bn and $100bn within two or three years – a prediction that proved unrealistic. Although companies were willing to venture into Iraq without new oil industry legislation, they balked on Tuesday at the fees the government was demanding. BP was forced to halve its fee – to $2 a barrel from $3.99 – to secure the contract. It also promised to boost the field’s production, which is about 1m barrels day, to 2.85m b/d within six years, second only to Saudi Arabia’s huge Ghawar field, said the Financial Times. It is an ambitious target and one that will not yield a high profit margin. For China National Petroleum Corp. CNPC, BP’s partner, developing Rumaila will offer the chance to secure oil supplies for China and develop ties with a key petrostate. The rest of the auction was largely disappointing. Royal Dutch Shell initially bid for the Kirkuk field but rejected Iraq’s demand for better terms. Companies including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, from the US, Europeans Eni and Edison, and Cnooc, Sinopec and CNPC, of China, did the same at other fields. Maysan, the gas field, failed to garner any bids at all. Shahristani, the architect of the bidding round, gave companies extra time to revise their bids but all, other than BP and CNPC, walked away.(QNA)