Iraq seeks to offset the production of the Russian and Saudi oil

The Iraqi Oil Ministry granted contracts to exploit and develop oil fields for more than 10 companies and giant financial institutions from around the world so as to increase production of Iraqi oil during the next seven years to 11 million barrels per day. The figure, 11 million barrels a day, is five times the current Iraqi production of oil, as it puts Iraq in the ranks of the two largest producers of oil in the world, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The (CNN) website said recently that Iraq possessed under the land at least 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, making it the third largest country in oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Canada. Analysts believe that there are other quantities of undiscovered oil, which means that Iraq's oil reserves may be much larger than advertised, especially as the Western Sahara were not subject to exploration for oil. It is noteworthy that the Iraqi oil industry had suffered from decades of mismanagement and the economic embargo and war. In recent years, further violence in Iraq, the deteriorating internal situation and the differences on oil international oil companies from the country, but things have changed during the past summer, where the British oil company BP and the Chinese oil company CNPC won contracts to develop Rumaila oil field near the southern city of Basra Iraq. The field has attracted the attention of the giant oil companies, but the terms of the concession in Iraq was very strict, according to Colin Lothian, an analyst at energy consulting firm, "Wood Mackenzie." In any case, many companies, which formed coalitions with one another, have obtained contracts to exploit the development of many Iraqi oil fields, among these companies, "Exxon", "Shell", British Petroleum (BP), Russian "Lukoil", Chinese oil CNPC and Malaysia "Petronas" and others. During this period, Iraqi oil production will remain within the current boundaries, which is about two and a half million barrels a day, but most experts say that the goal of producing 11 million barrels per day long-term goal, but that the production of between 6 - 10 million barrels per day, remains a potential and more realistic. Access to 11 million barrels per day would be too costly even on oil country like Iraq, according to some experts, let alone comply with production quotas established by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries "OPEC" of Member States.m.e