Iraq raised its proven oil reserves figure by 25% Monday in a bid to match the clout of leading producer Saudi Arabia and strengthen its case for OPEC to grant it a higher output quota, according to Reuters.
Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said new estimates of reserves at the West Qurna and Zubair fields helped push the total figure to 143 billion barrels. West Qurna was now the second largest field in the world, he said, and more fields were likely to be discovered.
Until the revised estimate, Iraq’s proven reserves had been put at 115 billion barrels, already the world’s third largest, however it was based on outdated data.
The return of international oil companies to Iraq had boosted oil reserves, Shahristani told a news conference.
“The oil reserve is for 66 discovered oilfields in Iraq and there are many others that have not been discovered yet,” he said.
“It is expected this figure will be increased when these oilfields are discovered.
Shahristani said West Qurna had reserves of 43.302 billion barrels.
“The new proved reserves figure will entrench Iraq’s position at OPEC and in the future help Iraq to get a higher export quota in OPEC,” Falah al-Amri, Iraq’s OPEC delegate, told Reuters.
Shahristani said Iraq’s OPEC partners would need to come up with a new mechanism to determine production quotas for OPEC members but the issue was not being discussed.
“We will not discuss the Iraqi quotas issue with OPEC now. This case has been delayed,” Shahristani said.
The oil ministry has been carrying out 3D seismic surveys to update its oil reserves data.
Iraq has suffered from decades of underinvestment with very little oil exploration activity in Iraq and reserves data has not been revised for years.
Oil and gas majors such as BP and ExxonMobil, are moving ahead with a series of deals to unlock reserves that could boost Iraq’s production capacity to match that of Saudi Arabia which stands at 12 million bpd.
Iraq currently produces 2.5 million bpd now and plans to increase this to the ambitious target of 12 million bpd.
The deals could provide Iraq with the billions of dollars it needs to rebuild after years of war, sanctions and decline.
