Iraq oil contract goes to Angola's Sonangol

Angola is the second biggest producer of oil in Africa The Angolan state-owned oil company, Sonangol, has signed two initial oilfield deals in Iraq. The two, the Qayara and Najmah oilfields, are in Nineveh province, known as one of the most dangerous regions of the country. There are frequent insurgencies there, as Sunni Islamic militants and al-Qaeda are both active. Sonangol will be paid between $5 and $6 a barrel, one of the highest fees awarded in Iraq's oil deals. The two fields combined contain an estimated 1.7 billion barrels of oil. The deals were awarded in Iraq's second bidding round for oil contracts, held earlier this month. Contracts went to companies including Shell, CNPC and Lukoil. Risky venture The high fees for Sonangol reflect the risks and relatively low quality of oil at the two sites. But they were well below what the company initially pitched for. The firm had proposed fees of between $8.50 and $12.50 a barrel. Sonangol has said it will invest $2bn in Qayara and that several firms have shown an interest in forging joint exploration partnerships with it. "There are at least five companies that have approached us and showed an interest to work with us to invest. We are still holding talks with them. The companies are European and American," said Paulino Jeronimo, exploration manager at Sonangol. The deals must now be approved by Iraq's cabinet before they can be finalised. Iraq is potentially a vastly rich oil country. Its proven reserves now stand at 115bn barrels, below Iran's 137bn and Saudi Arabia's 264bn. But Iraq's data dates from the 1970s, before improvements in technology transformed the industry. Angola is Africa's second most oil-rich nation after Nigeria

Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant 'to open in 2010'

Russia has been building the plant for Iran since the mid-90s Iran's first nuclear power plant will be operating by mid-2010, Iranian and Russian officials say. The Bushehr plant was begun in 1974 and abandoned five years later. Russia took over building work in the 1990s, but it has been beset with delays. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted the head of Iran's atomic agency as saying that the plant had passed most tests successfully. Russia's state nuclear corporation said the reactor would be started this year. Its chief Sergei Kiriyenko said: "2010 is the year of Bushehr." He told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Moscow: "There is absolutely no doubt that it will be built this year. Everything is going according to schedule," Reuters news agency reported. The head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, said: "We will launch the Bushehr power plant in the first half of the next [Iranian] year [beginning on March 21]," Fars reported. Slipping timetable The timetable comes just two months after the Russian energy minister said that the planned 2010 operation would not be possible. At the time, analysts linked the delay to political pressure on Iran from Western powers to give up its nuclear weapon ambitions, but Russia said it was for technical issues. Russia signed a deal with Iran to complete the plant in the 1990s, but it was delayed while the UN Security Council debated and then passed resolutions aimed at stopping uranium enrichment in Iran. In December 2007, Moscow started delivering the canisters of enriched uranium the plant needs, and in February 2009 a test run was begun. The test, lasting several months, involved dummy rods that imitate the enriched uranium needed to run the plant. Any nuclear fuel from the plant will be brought from and returned to Russia so that it cannot be used for a weapons programme

Nigeria religious riot bodies found in village wells

An exact death toll is not known but aid workers say it may be 300 More victims of deadly religious clashes in central Nigeria have been found, with scores of bodies stuffed in wells and sewage pits. Up to 150 bodies have been found in Kuru Karama village, 30km (18 miles) from the city of Jos, where the violence erupted last Sunday. Correspondents say elders hid in holes for seven hours to escape the violence. An exact death toll is not known but overall up to 300 are thought to have died in the Muslim-Christian clashes. Several thousand people fled their homes. 'Burned alive' The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Jos says many of the bodies found in Kuru Karama had massive burns, other victims were hacked to death or shot. JOS, PLATEAU STATE *Deadly riots in 2001 and 2008 *City divided into Christian and Muslim areas *Divisions accentuated by system of classifying people as indigenes and settlers *Hausa-speaking Muslims living in Jos for decades are still classified as settlers *Settlers find it difficult to stand for election *Divisions also exist along party lines: Christians mostly back the ruling PDP; Muslims generally supporting the opposition ANPP In pictures: Nigeria riot aftermath She says there are still more bodies scattered in the bush beyond the village but the areas are not safe for volunteer workers to enter. Umar Baza, head of Kuru Karama village, told Agence France-Presse news agency: "So far we have picked 150 bodies from the wells. But 60 more people are still missing." The Human Rights Watch group said armed men had attacked the mostly Muslim Kuru Karama on 19 January. "After surrounding the town, they hunted down and attacked Muslim residents, some of whom had sought refuge in homes and a local mosque, killing many as they tried to flee and burning many others alive," it said in a statement. It quoted one villager as saying: "I came back on Wednesday evening escorted by the military. I saw dead bodies everywhere. The corpses were there, but now you can just see the blood on the ground. None of the houses are standing." The group called on Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to order an immediate criminal investigation into reports of the massacre. Mr Jonathan deployed the military after four days of clashes. He has been issuing orders while President Umaru Yar'Adua receives medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. The security forces have now restored order and a curfew has been partially lifted. But correspondents say the atmosphere is still tense. Jos, the capital of Plateau state, lies at the point where Nigeria's Muslim north and predominantly Christian south meet.