As one of the world's biggest oil producers, Iraq is aiming to elevate its crude reserves to more than 160 billion barrels, according to what Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani said today during the launch of new licensing rounds for 29 oil and gas fields.

At the opening of the new 3-day bidding process, Abdul Ghani said "The ministry has put forward 29 promising projects today."

"We hope to announce an increase of Iraq's proven oil reserves to more than 160 billion barrels", he added.

The winning companies will be supported and aided by the government, Abdul Ghani said.

Fields and exploration blocs in 12 provinces and an offshore bloc, the first to be delved into in Iraqi water territories in the Gulf, are part of these new rounds. 

As part of the biggest crude reserves in the world, the World Bank said that Iraq owns 145 billion barrels of confirmed oil reserves equal to 96 years of production at the current rate. 

Iraq is also aiming for these blocs to cause an increase in natural gas production as the Prime Minister's media office said in a statement that "Iraq anticipates deriving more than 3,459 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (98 million cubic meters) and over one million barrels of oil per day from these licensing rounds."

Since 2008, Iraq has done five licensing rounds. 

Iraq, Kazakhstan to rebalance planned OPEC+ oil cuts

Iraq and Kazakhstan will compensate for the overproduction of almost 1 million barrels per day of crude oil since 2024, OPEC announced in a statement on May 3.

OPEC held a "constructive workshop" with the two countries and secondary sources on May 3. 

The 35th OPEC and non-OPEC, more commonly known as OPEC+, ministerial meeting in June 2023, reiterated the importance of member states adherence to "full conformity, and subscribing to the concept of compensation," the organization explained. 

Earlier in April, the organization agreed with overproducing members, such as Iraq and Kazakhstan, to submit their detailed compensation plans to the OPEC Secretariat by the end of the month. 

As a result, the organization held a technical worship with the two countries' representatives to share compensation plans for the overproduction of nearly 1 million bpd of oil for the months of January, February, and March of 2024. Iraq and Kazakhstan recorded an average overproduction of 602 thousand bpd and 389 thousand bpd of oil, respectively, in the first quarter of this year.

According to the statement, the plans submitted by the two countries detailed the processes of rebalancing the entire overproduced amount, including possible additional amounts in April, by the end of 2024.