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Iraq Country Analysis Brief

EIA: “Iraq is the second-largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, and it holds the world’s fifth-largest proved crude oil reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Iran. Most of Iraq’s major known fields are producing or in development, although much of its known hydrocarbon resources have not been fully exploited. All of Iraq’s known oil fields are onshore. The largest fields in the south have relatively low extraction costs owing to uncomplicated geology, multiple supergiant fields, fields located in relatively unpopulated areas with flat terrain, and the close proximity of fields to coastal ports. Iraq is re-developing its oil and natural gas reserves after years of sanctions and wars. Iraq’s crude oil production grew by almost 1.5 million barrels per day (b/d) over the past five years, increasing from 2.6 million b/d in 2011 to almost 4.1 million b/d in 2015. These production estimates include oil produced in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the semiautonomous northeast region in Iraq governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The country’s production grew at a slower rate than the Iraqi government had expected over the past decade because of infrastructure bottlenecks in the south, supply disruptions in the north, and delays in awarding contracts. However, Iraq’s production boomed in 2015, increasing by almost 700,000 b/d compared with the level in 2014 and representing the largest year-over-year increase since Iraq’s production recovery in 2004, following the start of the Iraq war…”

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