Iraq Taps Chinese Oil Companies to Double Production

Iraq will invite China National Petroleum Corp. and other overseas companies to invest in oil fields to double daily production to 6 million barrels by 2012, the country’s oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani said.

“We need foreign partners to help develop new fields,” al- Shahristani said at a press conference today in Beijing. “Iraq will significantly increase its oil production in the next few years and China will significantly raise its imports. That’s why the two countries will need to work closely together.”
Iraq will increase its oil production to 3.5 million barrels a day by next year, with the capacity to export 2.4 million barrels a day, al-Shahristani said. The increased oil output will not be curtailed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, because Iraq has been producing less than its quota for many years, he said.

China was approached after U.S. companies refused to work in Iraq, Al Khashab was cited as saying. Chinese companies have dismissed security threats, he said, without giving details.

Bloomberg