SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq aims to increase its oil production to 6 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2027, oil minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said on Monday at an industry event.
Iraq, one of the world’s largest oil producers and a member of OPEC, has suffered as “the wrong market environment” discouraged investment in oil and gas, Reuters cited Abdul Jabbar as saying.
Iraq’s representative at OPEC Muhammad Saadoun said the organization had agreed to the country increasing its output to 4.5 million bpd starting from June, the state news agency (INA) reported on Saturday.
There will be further increases of 50,000 bpd in output in each of the months July, August and September, Saadoun added.
Iraq pumped 4.43 million bpd of oil in April, 16,000 bpd above its OPEC+ quota for that month, according to data from state-owned marketer SOMO seen by Reuters on May 11.
For Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, oil revenue represents at least 95% of its income. It has been hit by the collapse in demand and oil prices in the last two years, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
