Adnan al-Janabi, head of the parliamentary oil and gas committee, says Iraq’s continued bureaucratic stalemate means the country is falling behind its oil production goals.

Speaking at the MEED Iraq Energy Projects 2013 conference in Dubai, Al-Janabi called for the passing of a new oil and gas law to govern the sector, as well as a revenue sharing agreement to settle disputes between Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region.

“We are still stuck with the federal oil and gas law since February 2007. This is a systemic problem in the Iraqi body politic. No oil policy will move forward without the Iraqi people. We need a federal oil and gas council. The Ministry of Oil is not the vehicle to carry out Iraq’s oil policy,” says Al-Janabi.

“If we continue with the present bureaucratic stalemate, we will fall behind. I don’t think we can reach the 4.5 million barrels a day [b/d] target by next year.”

Al-Janabi’s view challenges most optimistic forecasts from the government, which is setting out its plan for production in a new strategy in April.