“Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki opened the first single-point mooring (SPM) with export capacity of 850,000 to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the Gulf,” Asim Jihad, the oil ministry spokesman told Xinhua by telephone.

He said the new terminal is one of five SPMs with similar oil export capacity that the ministry is building in the coming years in the Gulf.

Iraq is planning to increase its oil export capacity to more than five million bpd in the coming years from the current capacity of 1.750 million barrels a day, Jihad said.

He said that in addition to the new SPMs, Iraq has also built two undersea pipelines and one onshore to connect the offshore parts with the onshore installations.

The latest project is part of a plan to increase Iraq’s oil exports capacity after the country signed service contracts with international firms to develop 12 oil fields across the country to increase its oil production capacity which stood close to three million barrels a day.

However, Iraq’s oil exports averaged 2.2 million barrels a day through both Basra port and Turkey’s port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea.