Iraq supergiants to hit 2.1m bpd by year-end

Iraq expects crude output from its southern oilfields, Rumaila, Majnoon and West Qurna Phase one, to reach about 2.1 million barrels per day by the end of this year, the head of South Oil Company (SOC) said.

State-run SOC gave the estimates after international firms presented development plans and started issuing tenders for work in the supergiant fields, company head Dhiya Jaafar told Reuters in an interview.

Iraq, in desperate need of cash to rebuild after years of economic sanctions and underinvestment, has opened its vast oil reserves and some untapped fields to global oil companies.

It struck major deals in two auctions last year in a bid to raise its production capacity to Saudi Arabian levels of 12 million bpd in seven years from 2.5 million bpd now.

The potential workload in Iraq is unprecedented in the history of the oil industry.

Tehran Times