Iraq aims to more than double northern oil

Iraq aims to more than double northern oil production from around 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 1.3 million bpd by the end of 2014, executives from the Northern Oil Co told AFP. "We adopted a plan to increase the production" and export of oil, said Hamid Abdelrizak al-Saadi, the company's general manager. An executive in the company's planning and investment department said on condition of anonymity that "the plan is to increase production to more than one million barrels per day by the end of 2014" from about 600,000 bpd now. Saadi gave figures for planned increases for various fields that would bring the total to about 1.3 million bpd. Saadi said the plan for the company, which is in charge of oil and gas fields in Kirkuk, Anbar, Salaheddin and Nineveh provinces, includes increasing production from the Kirkuk field from 280,000 bpd to 600,000 bpd. The plan also includes developing the Bai Hassan field, also in Kirkuk, to increase production from 195,000 bpd to 250,000 bpd. And the company aims to boost output from the Jambur field in northern Kirkuk from 36,000 bpd to 80,000 and the Ajeel field in Salaheddin province from 25,000 bpd to 35,000 bpd. It will also develop the Hamrin field in Salaheddin to increase production from between 20,000 and 25,000 bpd to 60,000 by the beginning of 2013. And there is a project for Angolan company Sonangol to develop the two fields of Qayara and Najmah in Nineveh province, south of Mosul, so they produce 230,000 bpd in the next three years, he added. Saadi also said a study had carried out a study on building new pipelines to the border with Syria and repairing or replacing old pipelines. Oil sales account for the vast majority of Iraqi government income and around two thirds of gross domestic product. Iraq currently produces about 2.9 million bpd. It exported an average of 2.1 million bpd in 2011. Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi has said Iraq plans on increasing production and exports this year to 3.4 million bpd and 2.6 million bpd, respectively. On Sunday, Iraq began pumping oil to the first of five floating terminals in the Gulf in a move that will increase its export capacity by 850,000 barrels per day.