Iraq has signed a contract to drill 96 oil wells in the West Qurna-1 oil field located in the southern province of Basra to raise the production, according to a statement by the Ministry of Oil.
The state-run Basra Oil Company and the contractors for the West Qurna-1 oil field, ExxonMobil company and the US' Schlumberger International, signed the contract on Thursday, reports xinhua news agency.
Minister of Oil Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail said during the signing ceremony that the contract "will increase oil production in the Qurna-1 oil field by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the coming five years".
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Oil Karim Hattab said the current production in West Qurna-1 is 380,000 bpd out of a production capacity exceeding 500,000 bpd.
The oil field also produces around 150 million cubic feet of associated gas on a daily basis, he added.
Iraq's West Qurna-1 oil field, which holds more than 20 billion barrels of expected recoverable reserves, is among the largest in the world.
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Iraq's economy heavily relies on crude oil export, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of the country's revenues.
--IANS
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