(Corrects expiry of MOU in second paragraph.)

Kuwait Oil Co. is still in talks with ExxonMobil Corp. to develop heavy-crude deposits in northern fields, the company’s chairman Sami al-Rushaid said.

KOC, as the company is known, signed a two-year memorandum of understanding with ExxonMobil in 2007 to develop 700,000 barrels of heavy oil from the fields and the two parties didn’t announce any major agreement since then.

“We are interested in talks with any international oil company to develop the fields,” he said, including Total SA. (FP)

To contact the reporter on this story: Wael Mahdi in Cairo at wmahdi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Raj Rajendran at rrajendran4@bloomberg.net