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Iraq is pumping crude at a record pace and will continue to boost exports this year amid a supply glut thats pushed prices down, Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said.

The average for Iraqi crude output is 4 million barrels a day, which is a historical record, Abdul Mahdi said at a news conference after meeting his Turkish counterpart, Taner Yildiz, in Baghdad. Exports from Iraq will rise to 3.3 million barrels a day this year, boosted by oil from the Kurdish region, Abdul Mahdi said.

The Middle East nation, holder of the worlds fifth-largest crude reserves, is rebuilding its energy industry after decades of wars and economic sanctions. The central government reached an accord last month with the Kurds to allow increased oil exports through Turkey. Oil prices have fallen about 56 percent since June amid a supply surplus on global markets.

Iraq will ship 60 crude cargoes, equivalent to 3.3 million barrels a day, from the Basrah Oil Terminal in the Persian Gulf in February, according to a preliminary loading program obtained by Bloomberg News today. The whole country exported 2.94 million barrels a day in December, the most since the 1980s, Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said Jan. 2.

Exports from northern Iraq through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan will average 375,000 barrels a day in the coming months, rising to as much as 600,000 barrels a day by April, Abdul Mahdi said. About 500,000 to 600,000 barrels a day of Iraqs production is consumed locally, he said.

An agreement in December resolved months of feuding between Iraqs Kurdish region and in the central government in Baghdad over who had the right to export crude from the semi-autonomous area. The deal allowed for as much as 550,000 barrels a day of oil to be shipped through Turkey from northern Iraq, including 250,000 a day from the Kurdish region. Iraqs central government had previously threatened legal action against any buyers of crude produced in the Kurdish area.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose as high as $115.71 a barrel in June, before slumping this month to $45.19, the lowest since 2009. Prices fell as the U.S. pumped crude at the fastest rate in more than three decades and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resisted calls to cut its own output. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar estimate there is a crude surplus at 2 million barrels a day.

Crude prices will rise gradually in the second half of 2015, although they wont return to last years levels, Abdul Mahdi said.

Brent for March settlement fell 1.2 percent, or 60 cents, to $49.56 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange in London at 9:26 a.m. local time.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kadhim Ajrash in Baghdad at kajrash@bloomberg.net; Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.net

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Iraq Pumps Crude at Record Level Amid Plummeting Prices