The petroleum ministry remains unruffled over the war in Iraqi since, barring import of crude oil, it has limited interest in the war-torn country.

The Cabinet secretary has convened a meeting of secretaries of key ministries, including petroleum ministry, to take a stock of the impact of the Iraqi war on India's business with that country.

International prices of crude will, to a large extent, depend on exports from Iraq. Though crude oil supply from Iraq will continue to engage the attention of senior petroleum ministry officials, India's investment in Iraq's oil sector is so far confined to only one exploration acreage, Block-8.

The public sector ONGC Videsh Limited has taken over the block after signing a production sharing agreement with the Iraqi government.

Following the PSA, OVL is learnt to have brought the block's seismic data to India for processing. Any further activity in the block would now depend upon the outcome of the war and the installation of a new government there.

Official sources point out that while OVL has earmarked Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million) for investment in Block-8, the expenses so far run into a couple of crores only.

"Before committing anymore investment in the block, we will have to wait till the war ends and the new government takes over," the sources said.

However, OVL is confident that since the Iraqi government went through the entire legal process before signing the PSA, it is expected that the new government there will respect the commitments made by the current regime. Even if the new regime scraps the PSA, OVL would not lose more than a "few crores".

OVL may have to start afresh on the Tuba field which is considered to have around one-third of the oil and gas reserves of the Mumbai High.

Both OVL and an Algerian firm, Sonatrach, were having parallel negotiations with Iraqi authorities for the field. It is learnt that these negotiations were not making much headway because of the UN sanctions against Iraq.

Barring these two projects, India did not show much interest in participating in Iraq's oil sector.

Though Iraqi government is leant to have invited Indian firms to invest in their refineries, the UN sanctions are learnt to have prevented India from any participation in the highly-lucrative hydrocarbon sector of the Gulf nation.