Baghdad:  Iraq's oil production exceeded 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time in 20 years, newly appointed Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Al Luaibi said at a press conference in Baghdad on Monday.

Al Luaibi vowed to speed up the increase in output and development of exploration and drillings in collaboration with international companies operating in the country.

"We will work on rehabilitating energy industry-related infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines," he said during the handover ceremony with his predecessor, Deputy Prime Minister for energy affairs, Hussain Al Shahristani.

"We will back the foreign energy companies working in Iraq to raise output, exports and storage."

Iraq, holder of the world's fifth-largest crude reserves, is seeking foreign investors to help boost oil and gas production, which was affected by insurgent attacks and a lack of spending.

Oil output hovered around 2.4 million barrels a day since the 2003 US-led attack that ousted the regime of President Saddam Hussain. The government awarded 12 oil and three gas development contracts to since the invasion.

Al Luaibi confirmed that the delayed contract for the Akkas natural gas field will be signed "within days".

The oil ministry had planned to sign an agreement for the field on November 14 with Korea Gas, known as Kogas, and Kazakhstan's state fuel producer, KazMunaiGaz National.

Iraq postponed the deal for Akkas to "clear the misunderstanding" over the planned use of fuel from that deposit, Al Luaibi said in November.

Akkas is the largest of the three fields for which the government awarded licences on October 20. Kogas and KazMunaiGaz agreed to produce 400 million standard cubic feet of gas a day at a price of $5.50 a barrel of oil equivalent produced.

Al Luaibi said negotiations were continuing with Royal Dutch Shell and Mitsubishi on a project to capture associated gas at oil fields in southern Iraq. "There is nothing new so far on that," he said.

An agreement with Shell and Mitsubishi is due to be signed by the end of January, Ali Hussain Khudair, the director-general of Iraq's South Gas, said on November 25.

The government gave initial approval on June 29 for the creation of a venture with Shell and Mitsubishi, to be called Basra Gas.

The venture would be owned 51 per cent by state-run South Gas, with Shell holding 44 per cent and Mitsubishi the remaining 5 per cent.