BP is advancing a phased programme to lift output from four Kirkuk oil fields to as much as 1.5mn bpd, a North Oil Co. source said. has said.
The source, who requested anonymity, told Kurdistan24 on October 16 that the work falls under BP’s 25-year, $25bn agreement signed with the federal government in Baghdad.
The scheme covers the Kirkuk, Bai Hassan, Jambur and Khabbaz fields, which together currently produce around 300,000 bpd. Of that, roughly 180,000 bpd is exported via the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline, with the balance absorbed by domestic refineries.
Under the sequencing described to Kurdistan24, BP will first target 450,000 bpd, then step up to 900,000 bpd, 1.25mn bpd and ultimately 1.5mn bpd over the life of the contract. The source cautioned that the ceiling will only be reached through successive rounds of pipeline rehabilitation, new tie-ins, station upgrades and field development.
BP has assembled a project team and engaged several Iraqi contractors to overhaul ageing surface infrastructure, the source said. Initial scopes focus on repairing well-to-station flowlines, many of them decades old, before new pipelines are laid from drilled areas and connected to existing gathering points. Attention will then shift to the production stations themselves, most of which date from the 1970s and are considered obsolete.
Work has already begun, with upgrades and incremental output gains proceeding in parallel.
The ramp-up plans come against a volatile backdrop for Iraqi crude flows. Iraq produced about 834.7mn barrels in the first nine months of 2026, according to a statement issued on October 17 by economic monitoring centre Eco Iraq. September delivered the year’s peak daily rate at 4.399mn bpd, achieved before the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Output averaged 4.097mn bpd in January and 4.140mn bpd in February before collapsing from March as regional conflict spread, Eco Iraq said. Production fell to 1.906mn bpd in March, 1.633mn bpd in April and bottomed at 1.406mn bpd in May, recovering to 1.525mn bpd in June, 2.901mn bpd in July and 3.746mn bpd in August. The monitor said its figures draw on direct communication data in the OPEC table.
Eco Iraq has previously said the strait closed on February 28, 2026, costing Iraq roughly 350mn barrels of exports. The Iraqi Oil Ministry told Kurdistan24 in June that more than 96% of the country’s crude exports normally transit the waterway.
Ministry spokesperson Salim Rokabi said it was impossible to predict when exports would fully resume, adding that volumes would return to prior levels “once conditions in the region and the strait stabilize”.