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Iraq shoots for 9 million bpd by 2020

BAGHDAD, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- The Iraqi government said it set a goal of producing as much as 9 million barrels of oil per day by the end of the decade.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani said production should reach 9 million bpd and exports should reach 7.5 million bpd by 2020, KUNA, the Kuwaiti news agency, reported Monday.

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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its latest monthly market report Iraqi oil production increased 4.6 percent from September to 2.89 million bpd in October.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration in an April report on Iraq said crude oil production is constrained by the lack of export infrastructure.

"Iraqi oil exports are currently running at near full capacity in the south, while export capacity in the north has been restricted by sabotage," the report said.

Mid-November protests at an oil facility near the southern port city of Basra prompted oil services company Baker Hughes to suspend operations briefly. An oil pipeline in the north of the country was bombed Nov. 2.

The Kuwaiti news report offered few specifics about Shahristani's long-term objectives.

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