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More Iraqi Oil Output Sought

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The Associated Press

Published: June 4, 2008

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Iraq should boost crude oil export capacity to 6 million barrels a day, nearly three times the amount the country currently sends to international markets, a top Kurdish political leader urged Tuesday.

The goal set by Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, gave no proposed timetables and would far exceed even the nation's peak oil output shortly before the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. But the Kurds and the Iraqi government are locked in a dispute over the rights to sign oil contracts, and export levels remain a critical issue for both sides.

"We think Iraq needs to export more oil," Barzani said.

He added that talks over Iraq's long-awaited oil law will resume within two weeks in Baghdad.

Iraq's exports reached 2.11 million barrels a day in May while the total output - which includes exports and domestic consumption - stood at about 2.5 million barrels a day, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said.

The Energy Information Administration, part of the U.S. Energy Department, estimated Iraqi production at about 2.6 million barrels a day in early 2003. Production tapered off just before the U.S.-led invasion, according to the group.

Iraq sits on the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, totaling more than 115 billion barrels. But the industry is plagued by a lack of modern equipment and training after decades of U.N. sanctions, war and Saddam Hussein's ruinous rule. Saudi Arabia, OPEC's No. 1 producer, currently pumps between 10.5 million and 11 million barrels per day.

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