Iraq is considering increasing crude supplies to China by 50 percent as part of their landmark oil-for-project agreement with the aim of encouraging Chinese companies to undertake more projects in the Arab country, a senior Iraqi official has said.

OPEC’s second largest oil exporter signed the 20-year agreement in mid 2019 to supply Chinese firms with 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in exchange for funding projects in Iraq.

“We are considering increase those supplies to 150,000 bpd and all the proceeds from these supplies will be allocated to projects included in the budget,” said Mudhar Saleh, financial adviser to Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani.

Saleh told the official Iraqi news agency INA on Sunday that under the 2019 deal, Chinese firms have executed several projects in Iraq, including 1,000 schools, airport development in the Southern Nasiriya city, power expansions and other projects.

He added:”Chinese firms will soon embark on projects to build a number of new hospitals in Iraq…a large housing project for low-income Iraqis is also under study and will be undertaken by Chinese contractors under the 2019 agreement.”

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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