February 2003: Former Iraqi Oil Minister Believes Iraq Could One Day Rival Saudi Arabia in Oil Production

Fadhil Chalabi, a former Iraqi oil minister and a second cousin of Iraqi opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi, tells the Financial Times that within five years of Saddam Hussein’s removal, Iraq could rival Saudi Arabia in oil production. “The first phase, which would probably last one to two years, would see Halliburton, Schlumberger, and other service companies helping Iraq restore its production from the current 2.5m b/d average to 3.5m b/d, a volume it last saw in July 1990, just before it invaded Kuwait. The second, the development phase, would include the world’s biggest oil companies, among them BP, Total, ChevronTexaco, Exxon/Mobil, Shell, Lukoil, and Eni, vying for lucrative production sharing contracts with the new government.” By 2008, Chalabi suggests, Iraq could be producing 10 million barrels/day. [Financial Times, 2/21/2003]