Iraq's Oil Ministry does not expect to sign an initial contract for the Akkas gas field until February, a senior oil official said on Wednesday.

Abdul-Mahdy al-Ameedi, head of the Oil Ministry's licensing and contracting office, said the delay had been caused by the ministry's workload as a new Iraqi government gets into gear and a new oil minister takes over the ministry.

South Korea's Kogas and Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGas won a deal on October 20 to develop the western Akkas gas field, near the Syrian border, in Iraq's third energy auction since the 2003 US-led invasion.

But the initial signing, originally scheduled for November 14, was postponed due to a row between the central government and provincial authorities over possible gas exports.

New Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi told Reuters in early December, before he was appointed minister, that the disagreement had sprung from a misunderstanding.

The Akkas deal became controversial when authorities in Iraq's western Anbar province, the Sunni heartland and a former al Qaeda stronghold, said they would not allow foreign companies to work there.

Iraq, holder of the world's 10th largest gas reserves, has said the priority for the gas will be domestic consumption, mainly for power generation, but has left open the possibility of allowing exports once domestic needs are satisfied.

More than seven years after the US-led invasion, Iraq's national grid only supplies a few hours of power each day.

Akkas has estimated reserves of 5.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.-Reuters