Interview: Sabah Shabeeb al-Sa’idi

BAGHDAD - Iraq is gearing up for a second auction of oil fields in November, and it’s tying up loose ends on projects aimed at increasing production and exports from the world’s third largest oil reserves.

Producing just less than 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) currently, Iraq is more than a million bpd behind Iran and more than 5 million bpd behind Saudi Arabia. Yet last year Iraq earned nearly $62 billion from oil, due in part to record prices. This means the relatively underexplored reserves can handle producing what this war-torn and reconstruction-hungry country needs.