Oil Companies Eye Iraq’s Multibillion Barrel Prize: Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A)

As multinational military forces have left Iraq, international petroleum companies have eagerly descended – seduced by the long-term potential of vast oil reserves off-limits to foreigners for decades. Yet lingering violence, legal questions and political uncertainty make doing business in this country a gamble. In the first international oil auction held last June, widely seen as a failure, the Iraqi government awarded a firm contract to only a consortium of British Petroleum and the China National…