ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's oil minister said Sunday that the country's oil production will reach eight million barrels per day in 2027, with the country undertaking large projects aimed at maximizing production, state media reported.
"Iraq is working to increase its capabilities to increase oil energy, and we have large projects to increase production," Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said, adding that the country is "committed to reaching peak production" of oil, with projects underway across all oil fields.
The oil minister listed the extension of the Ceyhan pipeline, running from the Iraqi city of Kirkuk to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, as one of the infrastructure projects being developed by the oil ministry to increase production quantities.
A February decision by Iraq's Federal Court ruling the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas law as unconstitutional was also addressed, with the oil minister stressing that the top court's decision is being implemented and "all the legal and constitutional procedures" are being taken to implement the decision.
Jabbar backed the implementation of the court's decision by expressing his belief for a federal Iraq, saying that "standard methods in managing the entire oil wealth throughout the country" should be practiced.
The court's decision found the Kurdish oil and gas law to be "unconstitutional," therefore striking down the legal basis for the independence of the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas sector, a decision vehemently rejected by the Kurdistan Regional Government, who called it "unconstitutional" and "unjust."
Mohammed al-Aboudi, Director General at the Reservoirs and Fields Development Directorate at Iraq's oil ministry told Rudaw's Mohammed Sheikh Fatih on Saturday that Iraq's oil ministry doesn't seek to control the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas, but wants to administer its oil "in a manner which is permitted by law."
"It's not the idea of the oil ministry to control the Kurdistan Region's oil, I'm sure of that. The idea is for the oil ministry to only administer the oil file, but practically it's under the control of the Region," Aboudi said, clarifying that the entire administration of the oil file will be from the Region and not federal Iraq.
The oil minister reiterated Iraq's commitment to its share in the Organization for the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Iraq is a part of on production levels, and said that the country's export cap for the month of June is 3,800,000 barrels per day, a figure which will rise by an additional 50,000 barrels daily in July. The figures also include the Kurdistan Region.
Speaking at the sixth Iraq Energy Forum in Baghdad on Saturday, the country’s finance minister Ali Allawi warned that Iraq must invest in repositioning its energy mix, and move away from its reliance on solely exporting oil.
Iraq pocketed over $11 billion dollars in oil revenue in May, setting a record revenue for the second time in 2022 as it exported over 102 million barrels of oil.
