Middle East tricky energy triangle

Baghdad's and Erbil's oil-output plans are entwined with political differences and Ankara's strategy to diversify energy sources

The ashen fabric of Iraqi life over the past few years has had at least one bright thread running through it: the oil sector has gone from strength to strength. Today, on the face of it, the prospects look good. Earlier this year, Iraq added 10bn barrels to its oil reserves, raising them to 153bn barrels. Now the country is about to go one step better. Oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi told the Iraq Energy Forum 2017 in Baghdad in April that a further 15bn barrels would be added by 2018. In this same period, he continued, oil-production capacity would rise from around 4.4m barrels a day to 5m b/d. Some Iraqi officials are daring to suggest that this figure could reach 9m b/d by 2040. The recent a