Iraq has increased the official size of its proven oil reserves with new data suggesting that they have reached 143.1 billion barrels of oil, up from a previous 115 billion barrels, the countrys Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has said.
The figure, the first update since 2001, would mean Iraq has the world's second largest reserves, reports Dow Jones Newswires. Iraq would take second place from Iran, which has 137.01 billion barrels of proven reserves, but would still be behind Saudi Arabia, which has 264.59 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
“These aren't random figures, rather they were the results of deep surveys carried out by the ministry's oil reservoir company and international companies which signed contracts with Iraq,” al-Shahristani said. “Most of these figures were the result of surveys conducted by these international companies, specially at oil fields such as West Qurna and Zubair.”
Iraq has inked 12 deals with international oil companies to boost output capacity to around 12 million bpd from around 2.4 million bpd now. BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Lukoil, Eni, Total, Japan Petroleum Exploration and CNPC have all signed contracts to develop Iraq's vast oil fields. The largest Iraqi oil field is West Qurna. With total proven oil reserves of 43 billion barrels, it could be the world's second largest. West Qurna is divided into two phases — Phase 1 and Phase 2. Exxon Mobil-led consortium won a deal to develop Phase 1, while Lukoil led a consortium to develop Phase 2.
Rumaila, which is being developed by BP and CNPC, is the second-largest Iraqi oil field, with total proven reserves of 17 billion barrels, according to the Iraqi government. Majnoon, which Shell won the right to develop, comes third with proven reserves of 11 billion barrels of oil. All three are within the southern
Basra governorate of Iraq.
