Back in 2009, British oil and gas giant BP along with its then-Chinese partner China National Petroleum Corporation secured a technical services contract with Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Company to develop Iraq’s largest oil field – Rumaila – in the first such foreign exploration on the country’s energy sector in 40 years. The company’s activation earlier this month of a US$25 billion five-pronged oil and gas megadeal in the same country may prove even more historic. The 2 October activation of the deal means…