The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies will try to keep oil prices at $70 per barrel in the first quarter of 2022, Iraq’s oil minister said Sunday.
The group is expected to stick to its current production accord when it meets in October “if prices remain stable,” Ihsan Abdul Jabbar added.
Iraq’s total oil exports, including those of the Kurdistan region in the north of the country, should stand at an average of 3.4 million barrels per day in September, the minister told a news conference in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the oil minister said that Iraq's state-owned South Gas Co. and US energy services firm Baker Hughes plan to develop a 200 MMcf/d gas recovery project in the south.
The project will process associated gas from Nasiriyah and al-Gharraf fields in the southern province of Dhi Qar, 375km south of Baghdad.
The government is keen to implement this project, Abdul Jabbar said, noting its importance for gas investment in Iraq.
The project will cost $370 million and take 30 months to be implemented, he explained.
“Iraq needs to implement mega strategic projects to develop all its resources within a specific period of time,” the minister stressed.
He further pointed to the recovery in oil prices in the global oil market “despite all the challenges.”
The ministry is currently conducting negotiations with foreign companies for gas investment in the Akkas field in Anbar governorate.
