IRAQ'S oil production is now over 2.5 million barrels a day, a record since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the country's oil minister said overnight. Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said on US television that Iraq hopes to be producing 4.3 million barrels by 2010 and to be challenging Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer by 2015. Production was about 2.5 million barrels a day when president Saddam Hussein was deposed by US-led forces in 2003. It then collapsed to virtually nothing and has been slow to rebuild because of insurgent attacks and other problems.
In an interview with CNN television, Mr Shahristani emphasised that only one month and three days after the Iraqi government took office, "we have been able to break a record". "Today's oil production was in excess of 2.5 million barrels a day. And that's a record since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003," he told CNN's Late Edition program.
He said Iraq hopes to increase production to 2.7 million barrels by the end of the year and to 4.3 million barrels by 2010, which would be a new all-time record for Iraq. The minister said Iraq's highest oil production was 3.5 million barrels a day. "Our ultimate aim is to reach more than six million barrels a day, hopefully by 2012.
"And needless to say, Iraq holds one of the largest reserves of oil and gas in the world, and we are determined to prove it has the largest world reserve."