Iraq plans to boost its crude production capacity almost five-fold over the next seven years as the country moves to meet rising demand in Asia, its oil minister said yesterday. Hussein al-Shahristani also said he did not plan to stay in his post in Baghdad's new government, and had asked the prime minister "to look for somebody else." At an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur, Shahristani said Iraq's current oil capacity was about 2.5 million barrels and that it planned to add 150,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
With an estimated 115 billion barrels, Iraq has the world's third largest proven oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia and Iran. "By 2017, Iraq will have production capacity of over 12 million a day," he told reporters. "We think any additional demand for oil, particularly in the Asian market, will have to be met by Iraq. We are confident that there is demand for Iraqi oil until 2020, 2030." Shahristani said Iraq will open a third major tender, to develop three natural gas fields. "It's scheduled to open for bidding on September 1 this year. All the qualified oil and gas companies are free to participate," he said.
Iraq last year awarded 10 major development contracts to foreign companies in two rounds with the aim of raising its output capacity. Shahristani said those first two rounds would result in production of more than 60 billion barrels of oil over the next 20 years, generating US$6.4 trillion in revenue. Iraq's oil revenues account for around 85 percent of government income. The minister said Iraq hopes to be able to reach oil self-sufficiency by the end of this year by building four new refineries.
