A general view of an oil refinery in the waters of the Northern Arabian Gulf close to the port town of Umm Quasar in Basra, southern Iraq (file).

Iraq, gaining on Iran as Opec’s second-largest oil producer, is at least two years away from reaching an output level that will prompt a debate within the producer group on setting Baghdad’s individual output quota, a senior Iraqi official said yesterday. Thamir Ghadhban, energy adviser to Iraq’s prime minister, said analysts had spoken of the possibility of conflict within the

Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Iraq regains a leading role. Iraq was outside Opec’s agreements to set oil output levels for years until December, when it became included in an overall Opec target to pump 30mn bpd. But Opec has not divided up that into individual output quotas for its 12 members, baulking at the delicate topic. “This issue is not of immediate concern within Opec as we are still two years away from reaching production capacity exceeding 4mn bpd,” Ghadhban said at a London energy conference. Opec’s quota debate will draw in Iran, which before the 1990-1991 Gulf War had parity with Iraq.