Iraq has the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world, with the Ministry of Oil announcing an upward revision in 2013, putting reserves at 150bn barrels. This is about 10bn barrels more than the previous estimate made in late 2010.
Iraq's oil potential could be considerably greater, given that large swathes of the country are yet to be explored. The little-explored Western Desert may also hold sizeable quantities of natural gas, although political instability is severe in this area-large chunks of it are currently outside of government control following the advance of an extreme Sunni jihadi group, Islamic State (IS) since June.
In 2012 Iraq passed Iran as the second-largest producer in OPEC. Production gains disappointed in 2013, hampered by poor weather, inadequate export infrastructure and security issues. Despite the surge in insecurity in 2014, there has been some progress, with output reaching a record high of 3.5m barrels/day (b/d) in February and more new fields coming on stream.

Energy report 2

Overview 2

Energy policy 3

Oil and gas 4

Electricity 7

Coal 8

Nuclear 8

Alternative energy 8

Industry publishing schedule 10

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