Iraq: Iraq Says Oil Output Must Rise to Compensate for Price Drop

Jan 21, 2015 | James Herron and Maher Chmaytelli, Bloomberg
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Iraq, the nation adding more new oil to global markets than any other supplier in OPEC, said it needs to boost production and exports of crude to compensate for collapsing prices.

“Because of the new challenges, especially the price of oil, Iraq has to try its best to raise it oil production and exports,” Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Nuri Shaways said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Iraq has lost about 50 percent of its revenues because of the slump in oil, Shaways said. An agreement last month between the country’s federal government and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region will boost exports by more than 550,000 barrels a day, he said. The nation is pumping at about 4 million barrels a day, already a record, Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said Jan. 19.