Baghdad, Dec 11 : A consortium led by Britain's Shell and Malaysia's Petronas energy companies Friday won rights to develop Iraq's massive Majnoon oil field, the Oil Ministry announced.

The field, with 12.8 billion barrels of proven reserves, was one of the two biggest prizes on offer in a live auction in Baghdad that saw energy giants from 23 countries compete for 10 oil and gas fields. Bidding will continue Saturday.

Shell and Petronas asked for $1.39 dollars barrel in exchange for boosting production from 46,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.8 million.

Of the remaining fields still up for grabs, only the West Qurna-Phase II field is as large.

Petronas was also part of a consortium led by China's CNPC that Friday won the rights to develop the Halfaya oil field, which has proven reserves of 4.1 billion barrels.

CNPC, which has a 50-percent share in the group, Petronas and France's Total, which each hold 25-percent shares in the group, committed to raise Halfaya's production to
535,000 bpd, from the 3,000 bpd it currently produces.

The consortium had requested $1.40 per barrel for the investment.

Friday's first deals cemented Shell's and CNPC's places as major players in the Iraqi oil industry. They also marked Petronas' entry as a serious player in the development of the country's hydrocarbon resources, thought to be the third-largest in the world.

CNPC was part of a consortium with BP that won the rights to develop the massive Rumaila field in the first round of bidding in June.

Shell and US giant Exxon in November signed a deal to develop the West Qurna-Phase I field.

The auction is taking place in the shadow of a series of bombings that Tuesday killed as many as 127 people and injured more than 500 in central Baghdad.

Some of the fields still on offer, such as the Nijm field in northern Iraq's conflict-ridden Nineveh province, or the East Baghdad field, whose 8.1 billion barrels of oil lie almost exactly beneath the Shia slum of Sadr City, are in areas with tenuous security.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani acknowledged those concerns Friday, calling on "the people there to cooperate with the Iraqi forces to expel the terrorists in order to provide the security for investment," and stressing that the international companies would work with local partners.(DPA)