Iraq's Finance Minister Ali Allawi, who is acting oil minister, said the country had agreed to allow Saudi companies to invest in its western Akkas gas field, Saudi news channel Al Arabiya reported on Saturday.

The news channel provided no further details. The Akkas field in western Anbar province.

Iraq is a major oil producer in the organization of petroleum exporting countries (Opec). It has abundant natural gas reserves, but access to them is restricted and it needs to import natural gas from the neighboring.