Iraq needs €16.6bn to boost oil production

Pre-war hopes that foreign investment would quickly turn Iraq into a major oil supplier were “too optimistic” and the industry is likely to remain starved of new capital until at least the end of 2005, Britain’s former top envoy to Iraq said today.

Elections scheduled for early next year need to be followed by a more stable security environment before investors get off the sidelines, Jeremy Greenstock told an Asian Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital.