Iraq will cut 210,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil by end of January, in compliance with Opec’s production cuts, according to the country’s oil minister.

“Iraq is definitely, certainly willing to comply with the Opec agreement and we have already taken measures to cut by 170,000 b/d and we’re already moving to make further cuts of 40,000 b/d to reach the level of 210,000 b/d that is the share of Iraq by Opec agreement,” said Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi speaking at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi.

“We’ll do this before the end of the month,” he added.

The proposed cut has not factored in output from Iraqi Kurdistan, but al-Luaibi added that the Iraqi oil ministry was in talks with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to arrange a cut.

Output from Basra in the south had reached around 3.42 million b/d but the commitment to cuts remained regardless of this achievement, added al-Luaibi.

Iraq had been the most vocal dissenter about Opec’s accord to cut production and had earlier sought exemption, citing its years of sanctions and conflict, particularly its ongoing battle with the so-called Islamic State.

The Iraqi ministry prior to Opec’s meeting in Vienna in November 2016 to agree to cuts had produced its official output figures, disputing Opec’s secondary sources regarding its production levels and saying it was unfairly subject to deeper cuts.

Al-Luaibi reiterated Iraq’s dissatisfaction with the data discrepancies.

“The determination of Iraqi production cut was not based on country official production level, which includes production from Iraq, KRG, but was made on other statistical and compiled production figures. We reflected our production by 4.7 million b/d plus 10 per cent more, but that was not really reflected in the secondary sources,” he said

“This has resulted in a larger production cut for Iraq, effectively reducing the revenues further for the country,” he added.

Casting aside doubts that the country might renege on its commitments to Opec in order to raise its output to compensate for lost production, he added the ministry was happy to “correct any deviation” or “dissatisfaction in figures”.

Al-Luaibi stressed that Iraq was in desperate need for more revenues as it also needed to develop critical infrastructure such as hospitals in the war-ravaged country.

“Iraq is in desperate need of revenues to alleviate the pain of the Iraqi people who are in desperate need on a daily basis,” he said.