How Much Iraqi Oil Is Significant?
Ahmed Abdulhameed Al-Jibawi
Introduction:
Iraq has the fourth largest proven crude oil reserves in the world with more than 145 billion barrels, which represents about 9.24% of the total proven reserves globally. Iraq produced 4.118 mbpd of crude oil in 2023 as the fifth top country in the world, which accounted for about 5.62% of the global production. Furthermore, Iraq exported an average 3.47 mbpd in 2023, making it the fourth largest crude oil exporter in the world. The Iraqi oil formed about 7.91% of all oil exported around the world in 2023. These numbers reflect the unique position that Iraq has in the world oil industry. The future oil demand and the new oil projects by the Ministry of Oil, heralds with a bright future for Iraq’s position in the global oil market, especially the Asian market. However, the Iraqi oil is estimated to last 96 years at least at the current rates of production and proven reserves. The advantage of Iraq oil isn’t just because of high production rates. high exporting capacities or relatively low productions costs, but also due to large unexploited reserves waiting to be tapped.
Abbreviations
• bpd: barrel per day
• mbpd: million barrel per day
• bb: billion barrels
• OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
• OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Future of Oil Demand
According to the data published by OPEC, the oil demand will continue to increase in the following years. The data show that the demand will rise by 16.5%, from 99.6 mbpd in 2022 to 116 mbpd in 2025. This means that the world will need an additional 16.4 mbpd to satisfy the skyrocketing consumption. The increase will majorly come from Asia, China and India in particular, in addition to other Asian countries.
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