Iraq: Oil production rises in November

Iraq’s oil output climbed in November and the ministry in charge of production forecast on Wednesday that it could surpass 3 million barrels per day by the end of 2008.

Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said Iraq’s average production was 2.4 million barrels per day in November. Exports stood at around 1.9 million barrels per day, sold at an average price of $83.87 per barrel.
In January 2007, output was 1.9 million barrels. There were no figures available for December or detailed month-by-month figures for the rest of the year.

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that removed Saddam from power, Iraqi production has mostly hovered between 1.7 million and 2 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency. Its prewar production was 2.58 million barrels per day.

Jihad added that the exports, about 1.6 million barrels per day from Basra in the south and more than 300,000 barrels per day from Kirkuk in the north, had grossed a total of $4.94 billion in November, which made up more than 90 percent of Iraq’s revenues.

“The ministry’s ambition is to increase the production to more than 3 million (barrels per day) by the end of 2008 and to pass the national oil law which will enable us to draw foreign investment to our oil resources,” Jihad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Boston Globe