Iraq Pumping More Oil than Ever
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Hemera/Thinkstock(BAGHDAD) — Iraq’s security situation may be tenuous due to the rise of the Islamic State but even resurgent violence hasn’t stopped its booming oil industry.
According to Oil Minister Adel Abdel Mehdi, Iraq produced approximately four million barrels a day in December, a record amount for the country.
The last time it got even close to that number was in 1979 when 3.56 million barrels were produced in a single month. That same year, the late dictator Saddam Hussein rose to power.
This makes Iraq OPEC’s second largest oil producer behind Saudi Arabia.
Mehdi announced that 375,000 barrels would be exported monthly from the northern Kurdistan region and the city of Kirkuk with the plan to produce 600,000 barrels daily, beginning in April.
The central government and the semiautonomous Kurds arrived at the deal after years of haggling, primarily due to the threat posed by ISIS in northern and western Iraq.
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