[1] The legislation started when the U.S.-backed Iraqi cabinet approved a new oil law that was set to give foreign companies the long-term contracts and the safe legal framework they have been waiting for.
[2] On March 10, 2007, prominent Iraqi parliamentarians, politicians, ex-ministers and oil technocrats urged the Baghdad parliament to reject Iraq's controversial hydrocarbon law, fearing that the new legislation would further divide the country already witnessing civil strife.
[4] By December 2, 2007, the Bush administration was concerned that recent security gains in Iraq may be undermined by continuing political gridlock, and started pushing the Iraqi government to complete long-delayed reform legislation within six months.
[8] By July 1, 2008, Iraq's government invited foreign firms Monday to help boost the production of the country's major oil fields, beginning a global competition for access to the world's third-largest reserves.
Iraq, which pre-qualified about 45 companies to bid on oil projects, plans to award contracts for the six partly developed and four undeveloped fields offered in its second licensing round by mid-December.