Iraq produces 3.15m barrel of crude oil

Iraq's crude oil production in the first three months of 2013 reached 3.15 million barrels per day ( bpd), while its oil exports in March stood at 2.42 million bpd, local media said Thursday."The Iraqi oil production during the first quarter of the current year was 3.15 million bpd," the state-run Iraqia channel quoted Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul-Kareem al-Luaybi as saying. Luaybi added that the Iraqi oil exports in March were 2.42 million bpd. During the month, Iraq shipped 2.10 million bpd through the southern port of Basra, and 315,000 bpd were exported via Turkey's port of Ceyhan of the Mediterranean Sea. Iraq's oil production is expected to increase in the next month as crude production will begin in Majnoon oilfield in Maysan province in southern the country. Another increase is also expected in June when crude production starts in al-Gharraf oilfield in Iraq's southern province of Dhi Qar, the minister said. Iraq is planning to double its oil production over the next three years, and earlier the country has passed the production level of 3 million bpd for the first time in three decades. The country depends on oil revenues for nearly 95 percent of its budget. In 2010 Iraq announced its proven oil reserves had increased to 143.1 billion barrels rising from the previous estimation of 115 billion barrels.