Iraq wanted this licensing round - the country's sixth - in particular to increase output of natural gas, which it wants to use to fire power plants that rely heavily on gas imported from Iran, Iraqi oil officials said.
Iraq's Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said in a statement, the increased gas production could allow more flexibility to supply electric power plants with gas.
The deals initialled on Wednesday were awarded in a bidding round held in May, in which Chinese companies dominated.
They will be profit-sharing contracts that offer a share of revenue after deducting royalty and cost recovery expenses, an oil ministry official who attended the signing ceremony on Wednesday said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press, he said Iraq had adopted profit-sharing contracts rather than technical service deals to try to attract more investment.
Traditional technical service contracts offer a fixed fee for work undertaken and are likely to be less lucrative for foreign investors than production-sharing terms.
In the May bidding round for 29 oil and gas projects, Chinese companies won 10 of the auctioned oil and gas blocks and fields.
