Iraq to Expand Oil Production Capacity by 2017

Iraq plans to expand its export facilities by increasing oil production to 12 million barrels a day (bpd) by 2017 and has signed deals with major foreign oil companies to achieve this goal.

The $1.3bn expansion will involve building two marine and one onshore pipelines and installing four single point moorings (SPMs) to load oil tankers, reports Reuters.

Iraq expects to increase its oil output to three million bpd by the end of this year and add about a million bpd next year.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Iraq could not increase its production until now as it lacked sufficient export outlet to handle the crude volumes produced.

The first two new SPMs will have an export capacity of 900,000bpd and would be ready by the end of this year.

Once the export facility expansion project is complete, Iraq will renovate two oil terminals in Basra and build a pipeline from the Basra fields through Syria and Turkey.