Projects awarded by Iraq to France’s TotalEnergies and other foreign companies over the past months will boost its oil production capacity to 7 million barrels per day (bpd) within five years, an Iraqi oil official has said.

The contracts, most of which were awarded to Chinese firms, focus on the development of the OPEC member’s oil and gas production and reduction of gas flaring to zero, said Ali Maarij, Oil Ministry Undersecretary.

“Within five years, Iraq’s oil production capacity will reach nearly 7 million bpd…Iraq is also working to expand its petroleum products output to totally stop import of such products,” he told an energy conference in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Iraq, OPEC’s second largest producer after Saudi Arabia, has produced an average 4 million bpd over the past year, below its capacity of more than 4.5 mbpd.

(Reporting by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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