Japan's Nippon must come to Baghdad for oil deal-Iraq

BAGHDAD, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Iraq's oil minister said on Tuesday Nippon Oil Corp (5001.T) must come to its Baghdad offices to seal a deal on the Nassiriya oilfield, expressing surprise at the company's refusal to visit its headquarters.

A delegation from Nippon arrived in Baghdad earlier this month, but refused to leave the airport and come to the oil ministry to finalise a deal, Hussain al-Shahristani said.

"It was not possible to have a meeting with Nippon outside the headquarters of the Iraqi Oil Ministry, because we were so busy having talks with other oil companies," he told Reuters.

"We are astonished that they couldn't come to the Iraqi Oil Ministry from the airport at a time when a bunch of international oil companies were conducting talks inside the ministry ... The position of Nippon is inexplicable." (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Deepa Babington)