OPEC’s second-largest producer threw an obstacle in the group’s path toward a final deal to stabilize oil markets when Iraq balked at joining efforts to trim output to prop up crude prices.
Iraq should be exempted from cutting production because it’s embroiled in a war with Islamic militants, Oil Minister Jabber Al-Luaibi said Sunday at a news conference in Baghdad.
The country currently produces more than 4.7 million barrels a day it pumped in September, and Iraq’s output could rise higher still as the government urges international companies to boost production at its fields, he said
