24 August, 2020:
The Iraqi News Agency published statements by the Iraqi Oil Minister, Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar, which included that Iraq currently has a production capacity of 5 million barrels per day, which can be increased to 7 million barrels per day by 2025, and that Iraq may dispense with importing gasoline in 2023. .
The Iraqi Oil Minister says that there is a tendency to resort to alternative energy after 2030, and not to rely on oil as a main source of energy, which is a global trend that will reduce the demand for oil and gas during the year 2030. “
He explained that Iraq’s contract with the American Chevron Company would bring many benefits to Iraq, and said that the “Dhi Qar” governorate is currently producing about 200 thousand barrels per day, and it will increase to about one million barrels per day, especially after the conclusion of new contracts.
With regard to natural gas projects, the Minister of Oil pointed out that “80% of gas projects are on the way to completion, and that the giant” “Artawi” project in Basra Governorate may take a longer time to complete because it is one of the mega projects. He also stressed that in 2025 Iraq will be self-sufficient in natural gas and dispensing with importing gas from abroad, and all gas burning operations in the oil fields will cease.
Iraq is the second largest producer of crude oil in the Organization (OPEC) after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Oil represents 90% of Iraq’s budget revenues, so the Iraqi economy was severely affected by the drop in crude prices during the Corona pandemic crisis, and it also reduced its exports to comply with the production cuts set by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Since the beginning of August 2020, Iraq has fully complied (100%) with the production cuts decided by the (OPEC +) group.
The “OPEC +” group had reached in April 2020 an agreement stipulating in its first stage to reduce production by 9.7 million barrels per day until the end of June 2020, and it was extended by one month to the end of July. Then, in early August 2020, the reduction began to be reduced to 7.7 million barrels per day until the end of 2020, and then to 5.8 million barrels per day until the end of April 2022.