Iraq’s cabinet has refined an all-important oil law to reportedly include the interests of minority Kurds and Sunni Muslims, wire media reported Tuesday.

"The law was approved unanimously (by the cabinet) ... it was referred to the parliament which will discuss it tomorrow," Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was reported by Reuters as saying.

New estimates of vast reserves in Iraq's western desert still pale alongside the known reserves in the Shiite south and Kurdish north of Iraq. Sunnis are said to fear marginalization in politics and therefore economics by the dominating numbers of Shiites.

Companies like Petrel and DNO stand to benefit if agreements with Kurdish officals in the hilly north are left in place by new rules.