Iraqi deputy premier Hussein Shahristani has said that Iraq plans to reach production levels of 4.7 million bpd by 2015. He also confirmed that current production levels exceeded 3 million bpd.
Speaking at a conference in London, Shahristani said that Iraq’s plans for the future were even more ambitious, stating that the country would reach production targets of 9 million bpd of oil by 2020, a level that would be sustained for the next 20 years, he claimed.
The Iraqi deputy premier blamed the country’s slow development of its oil fields in 2013 on spill-over attacks from the war in Syria.
“The Iraqi Turkish pipeline was blown up 54 times during 2013, averaging once a week yet we managed to repair and use that pipeline and pump on average 250,000 barrels per day last year. Attacking the energy sector has been among their top priorities to deprive the country of its main revenue source,” al-Shahristani said.
Despite these attacks, Iraq is preparing to cope with a huge jump in production levels as major projects in the company near completion. Iraqi production will rise by more than 50% in 2015 to 4.7 million bpd.
The deputy premier said that Iraq would look to discuss its production quota with OPEC once production levels reached 4 – 5 million bpd.
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