Iraq's Ministry of Oil on 4 October announced that it has increased its proven oil reserves by around a quarter to 143.1 billion barrels. Iraq overtook Iran to gain the third-place status in terms of oil reserves, according to data released by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) .The new reserve figure was reached with the help of international companies working at 12 fields, Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, said . He added that 71 per cent of those reserves were cocentrated in the south of the country, 20 per cent in the north and nine per cent in the centre. "The rise in reserves from West Qurna and Zubair has considerably contributed to the rise," Shahristani said. He added that the West Qurna field had reserves of 43 billion barrels, making it the second largest field in the world. In 2009, Iraq signed a dozen deals with multinational oil companies in the hopes of boosting output to 12 million barrels per day in seven years-from the current 2.5 million bpd.
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