Iraq’s once-battered oil sector is further eclipsing production in Iran, relieving pressure on world oil markets and facilitating the imposition of draconian new sanctions on Iran.
A day after the European Union confirmed that its oil embargo on Iran would go into effect as scheduled on July 1, a spokesman for Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs Hussain al-Shahristani told Bloomberg news Tuesday (June 26) that Iraq's output in June was more than 3.07 million barrels a day, just shy of Iran’s 3.1 million barrels. Iraq predicts production of 3.4 million barrels a day by the end of the year.
