If international oil companies (IOCs) are finding the current renegotiation of plateau output rates with Iraq's oil authorities hard going, they can at least console themselves with the thought that they will not have to repeat the process in the next year or two — even if Baghdad decides it needs to pump less than the 9 million barrels per day pencilled in as a new 2020-30 target To handle any gap between that development target and the oil that's actually needed, the government would implement pro-rata production cuts, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's energy advisor, Thamir Ghadban, has said. "If there is in future a change in the level of production, this is well written in the contract," Ghadban told journalists in London last month. "There will be a reduction in production pro-rata for everybody, national [companies] and the IOCs." There is a difference between the development goal, and actual production, Ghadban explained. "The development target is not going to change again," he said, even if Iraq lowers its output in light of market conditions or the call on Opec (PIW Mar. 18' 13).
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