According to the advance notes on the report, IHS estimates that Iraq currently has 116 billion barrels in reserve, and potentially 100 billion more barrels-worth buried under the western desert.
The new assessment of previously unknown reserves is largely based on the "establishment of new play concepts in the Western Desert of Iraq, which have been generated from a recent study of the Western Arabian Platform."
Further, the report projects that with the right investment and management, Iraq's oil industry could double its output within five years.
“Most of Iraq’s oil production comes from the south of Iraq and is exported via the Persian Gulf because of repeated sabotage attacks on facilities in the north,” said Mohamed Zine, IHS regional manager for the Middle East. “This has resulted in a current production capacity of two million barrels of oil per day. However... given a stable political and civil environment, Iraq has the potential to produce four million barrels a day in the near term if necessary investments are made in repairing and modernizing facilities.”
Zine added: “The cost to produce oil in some Iraq fields is less than $2 per barrel according to our estimates and investments involved in developing the fields are minimal.”
Prior to Iraq’s war with Iran in 1980, the country had a production capacity of 3.6 million barrels of oil per day. It was 3.2 million barrels per day before the first Gulf War in 1990 and 2.7 million barrels per day before the start of the most recent conflict.
IHS, Inc will release the full report on May 9.
