Great news from Iraq as the government anticipates major foreign oil companies to sign minor contracts as the first step toward bigger foreign investments. Expanded oil exploration and production could go a long way in reducing the current price of oil and gas.

BASRA, Iraq - In the oil-rich deserts of southern Iraq, a rusted pipeline snakes through piles of burning garbage, lakes of raw sewage and slums controlled by hostile militias.

Mundal Mayali, a local councilman, points to the pipeline and sighs. If oil infrastructure like this were modernized and the country's vast untapped reserves of crude explored, then this port city of Basra - and indeed much of Iraq - would flourish, he says. ...