“The average selling price was $103 per barrel, generating $7.3 billion in revenues,” he added in statement to (Reuters) briefed by “Shafaq News”.

Of the 2.381 million daily total, 2.072 million barrels were shipped from the southern oil port of Basra and 309,000 from Kirkuk in the north.

After decades of wars and sanctions, oil output from OPEC's second-biggest producer began a swift revival in 2010 after Big Oil signed deals to tap its southern oilfields.

But infrastructure and security problems, on top of a row between Baghdad and Kurdistan region, have slowed progress this year - it had hoped to hit 3.5 million barrels per day by the end of 2013.

OPEC's second biggest producer is expected to show a second year of only modest output growth in 2014.