The Iraqi government has teamed up with Booz & Company and the World Bank in preparing a so-called an integrated energy strategy outlining three scenarios for the country's oil production from 2012 to 2030.

The first envisages Iraq producing up to 13.5 million barrels a day starting from 2017.

"From 2012 to 2017, we are going to produce crude oil as high as possible," said Ali Al Mashat, an energy advisor at the Iraqi Council of Ministers and a coordinator of the strategy. Iraq is currently producing some 2.9 million barrels a day and expected to reach 3 million barrels a day this month, officials said.

"The strategy proposes that Iraq 's oil output target in 2017 would hit some 13.5 million barrels a day from 2017," Al Mashat said.

Iraqi officials, including Thamer Ghadhban, the top energy advisor to the prime minister, and Adnan al-Janabi, head of the oil and energy committee in parliament, presented a preliminary outline of the strategy at a seminar in Istanbul organized by the London-based CWC Group.

The strategy paper, proposed by the prime minister's advisory commission, is expected to be made public in January.

The strategy assumptions are based on the 11 oil field development contracts that Iraq has signed with international oil companies since 2009 to expand output. The deals would enable Iraq to pump 12 million barrels a day in the next six years. Such a production expansion would raise Iraqi output to levels produced by the world's largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia .

Many oil industry experts and companies consider that forecast as unrealistic, given the challenges Iraq faces, including a lack of a decent water injection system, inadequate infrastructure and the unstable security situation.

"Wishful thinking is something and reality is something else," said a western executive whose company is involved in the development of Iraqi oil fields.

"They don't have the infrastructure and the skills to reach that level of production," said another company executive. "They don't have the roads and ports to deliver equipment and the power to operate production facilities."

The second scenario, forecasting a capacity of 9.5 million barrels a day starting from 2020, is seen by oil experts as more realistic.

The third scenario envisages Iraq 's output reaching 6 million barrels a day in 2017.

However, Al Mashat said these scenarios are subjected to further discussions and could be changed.

The strategy also draws up plans for Iraq 's gas development and production. Iraq , which holds some 112.6 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, the fifth largest gas reserves in the region, produces only 1 billion cubic feet a day, some 700 million out of which is being flared.

Iraq signed last year with Booz & Company an $8 million contract which is co-financed by the Iraqi government and the World Bank, Ghadhban said.

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