“ Iraq's production of crude oil was amounted to 3.25 million barrels per day (bpd) at the beginning of August, compared with 2.942 million bpd a year ago, which indicates the possibility of exceeding production goal at the end of 2013,” the spokesman of the Iraqi Oil Ministry, Assem Jihad told “Shafaq News”.

He added that Iraq is expected to increase its total production of 400 thousand bpd by the end of the year with the start of running Majnoon field, operated by Shell in October and the other small fields.

The government set the size of the production goal for the end of this year at 3.4 million barrels a day in a decline from 3.7 million barrels earlier.

The increase in the production of Iraq has started since 2010 after it has contracted with major oil companies, including; BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Eni and Exxon Mobil.

Since then, production rose by 600 thousand bpd to exceed three million barrels a day, thanks to increased production from large fields in the south such as Rumaila , West Qurna-1 and Zubair.

Iraq needs to initiate the production of other fields in the south, including Majnoonand West Qurna 2, which operated by Russia's Lukoil to continue increasing its production.