DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- An energy conference in Dubai will showcase investment potentials in Iraq's oil sector, Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani said.
Al-Shahristani shrugged off concern that Iraqi violence has cast doubts over prospects for its vast oil reserves -- a pipeline stretching to Turkey has been the target of frequent insurgent attacks -- and told CNN output from two oil fields in southern Iraq should add another 300,000 barrels of oil per day to overall production levels.
"There's extra production from the other fields so when you add them up you will get to 3.5-3.6 million barrels a day by the end of the year," he was quoted as saying Friday.
The United Arab Emirates is hosting the three-day energy investment conference on the promise in the Iraqi oil sector. It starts Monday and is the fourth annual event, dubbed "Iraq Mega Projects Conference."
The Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries said Iraqi oil production for August increased 4.3 percent from the previous month to 3.1 million barrels per day.
