of the country is 360 thousand barrels per day at the present time because of the low levels of water injection, a necessary step to increase production.

He said in a statement to Reuters , seen by "Shafaq News" that “ the reason for not achieving the planned level of 400 000 barrels per day, is the delay in the prosecution of certain contracts and low pressure in the reservoir.

The source in the industry said earlier this month that the production of West Qurna -1, which is run by Exxon Mobil has reduced about 40 percent to about 300 thousand barrels per day compared to last year, pointing out that one of the causes is the water shortage.”

Abdul Razzaq said that there is a problem of injecting water is a major problem threatening Iraq's plans to increase oil production.

official sources in the sector, told Reuters that the lack of water is harming production in West Qurna 1 and Zubair.

Abdul Razzaq said that the company has signed a contract to solve the problem of water injection to provide 75 thousand barrels of water per day, adding that the currently available is 55 thousand barrels per day.

As for the giant Rumaila field, the Director General of the operating field , Salah Mohammed, said that the level of output target for next year 1.31 million barrels per day compared with the current level of 1.28 million barrels per day.

Mohamed said there are plans to build a new station to pull the gas card of 450 thousand barrels per day in addition to three new plants for water injection.

He added that technical analysis of the presentations will be completed in November and are expected to sign contracts in mid of next year.