Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 21 /Trend A.Badalova/
Crude oil production capacity in Iraq will increase by 1.87 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 4.36 mb/d between 2010 and 2016, International Energy Agency's (IEA) Oil Market Report says.
The latest outlook for Iraq, which is 335,000 barrels per day (kb/d) higher than the IEA's June report, is mainly due to steady progress at the country's 12 joint venture projects with energy companies.
The revised forecast means that Iraq is expected to account for 80 percent of the increase in OPEC's crude oil production capacity in the six-year period.
IEA predicts overall production capacity in OPEC to increase by 2.33 mb/d, to 38.1 mb/d by 2016. That amounts to 37.5 percent of the global liquids production capacity in 2016.
According to BP, Iraq's proven oil reserves amounted to 115 billion barrels in early 2011.
In 2010 Iraq's oil production increased by 0.6 percent to 2.4 million barrels per day.
According to the IEA estimates, OPEC crude oil supply in November rose to the highest level in more than three years, up by 620 kb/d to 30.68 mb/d, with Saudi Arabia and Libya accounting for 80 percent of the increase.
At the latest meeting twelve OPEC member countries agreed to officially fix cartel's output ceiling to 30 mbpd, which is 6 million barrel increase over the ceiling they set in 2008.