Baghdad, Jun 18 (IANS): Iraq has signed a contract to drill 96 oil wells in the West Qurna-1 oil field located in the southern province of Basra to raise the production, according to a statement by the Ministry of Oil.

The state-run Basra Oil Company and the contractors for the West Qurna-1 oil field, ExxonMobil company and the US' Schlumberger International, signed the contract on Thursday, reports xinhua news agency.

Minister of Oil Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail said during the signing ceremony that the contract "will increase oil production in the Qurna-1 oil field by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the coming five years".

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Oil Karim Hattab said the current production in West Qurna-1 is 380,000 bpd out of a production capacity exceeding 500,000 bpd.

The oil field also produces around 150 million cubic feet of associated gas on a daily basis, he added.

Iraq's West Qurna-1 oil field, which holds more than 20 billion barrels of expected recoverable reserves, is among the largest in the world.

Iraq's economy heavily relies on crude oil export, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of the country's revenues.