A five-year development plan for the oil sector approved in 2023 will boost Iraq’s crude output capacity to nearly 6 million bpd and turn the OPEC producer into a net gas exporter, an Iraqi oil official has said.

Nearly 30 oil concession sites offered to local and global firms last week within licensing rounds 5 and 6 are also expected to add large quantities of oil and gas to the country’s already huge hydrocarbon reserves, Oil Ministry Undersecretary Mohammed Khudair said.

“At the end of the five-year plan, Iraq will be able to produce nearly 6 million bpd of oil…we also have set a target to stop gas flaring, become self-sufficient and export the surplus,” he told Iraq’s Alittiqtisad News agency.

Iraq is OPEC’s second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, with its output capacity exceeding 4.5 million bpd, including production by the Northern Kurdistan region.

Iraqi oil minister Hayan Abdel Ghani said on Saturday the new projects could add nearly 3.459 billion cubic feet of gas per day and boost proven oil deposits to 160 billion barrels from around 145 billion.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach;  Editing by Bhaskar Raj)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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