Iraq oil production at highest level since 2003
Iraq’s oil production has reached an average of 2.5 million barrels per day, its highest level since the US-led invasion, a spokesman said today.
Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said 1.6 million barrels are being exported daily from the southern port of Basra, while 300,000 are being pumped from the northern city of Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The other 600,000 barrels produced daily are for domestic use, he said.
Iraq, a founding member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), sits atop the world’s third-highest proven reserves. Its estimated 115 billion barrels is more than any other OPEC member except for Saudi Arabia and Iran.
But oil production has slipped drastically since the invasion in March 2003, to an average of two million barrels a day in early April, as the system faced repeated insurgent sabotage, attacks on maintenance crews, alleged corruption, theft and mismanagement.
Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, a Shiite who assumed the post a month ago as part of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s new government, has promised to increase oil production and give all Iraqis a share.
Jihad also said new measures were being implemented and he was optimistic that the situation would improve.
“We hope to add 200,000 to 300,000 (barrels per day) before the end of this year,” Jihad said, adding he also hoped to double the amount of oil pumped from Kirkuk to Ceyhan in that time period.
Iraq’s oil industry has never regained even the reduced production levels that prevailed in the 1990s, when Iraq was under tough UN sanctions. In 1990, probably its peak production year, Iraq extracted about 3.5 million barrels a day.
Crude oil prices rose above 72 dollars a barrel today on anticipated strong demand over the Independence Day weekend in the US and Iran’s continued resistance to shut down its nuclear enrichment programme.
