[jveritas]

I think if they upgrade their current oil infrastructures, the Iraqis can produce 5 millions barrels a day without the need for new drilling but for sure they need to drill for more oil in particular in the Western Desert (Anbar province) where new studies say that there is a huge reserve of oil there.

[Marine_Uncle]

I believe you are right. The existing pipelines are half or more of the problem. Of course finding reliable workers to maintain the system has not been easy. I can see their budding airforce expending a lot of time policing their thousands of miles of piplines. It has simply been to easy for saboteurs to damage the line(s). Not to mention the general populace who have often tapped the lines for personal use.
Same could go for refinery maintenance. To much has been placed on foreign workers/tech people etc., to maintain their stuff in the past. They have to establish a local work force capable of taking care of their industrial complex.
Perhaps it will come to past in due time.