Iraq’s oil ministry is expected to announce a significant increase to the country’s estimate of crude oil reserves on Monday, an oil ministry spokesman said last week.
“The oil minister will announce on Monday a new higher figure for Iraq’s crude reserves and it will include a big increase compared to the old figure of around 115 billion barrels,” Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said.
Iraq’s crude reserves are the world’s third largest but its production lags. The government has signed a series of deals with oil majors to boost output capacity to about 12 million bpd from around 2.5 million bpd now.
The country’s current reserves estimate stands at 115 billion barrels trailing Canada and Saudi Arabia at 178 and 266 billion barrels respectively.
