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Security measures are important but more important is the political support and solidarity. With the change in the government and advocating the new policies we can see the positive impact on security, he said.

A career politician and economist, Mr Abdul-Mehdi who has previously served as vice-President and Finance Minister was an unexpected choice as oil minister but his appointment suggests of a wider shakeup within the countrys most important revenue generating institution.

Over a decade since the downfall of Saddam Hussein and the chaotic early years of reconstruction following the 2003 war, Iraq is only now beginning to realise some of its vast potential as a global oil exporting power. The country is now producing around 3m barrels per day (bpd) of crude, with a large share of that output making its way onto the international market in the form of exports from its oil terminal south of Basra.

Iraqs oil ministry has previously said that it would be able to pump up to 12m barrels of oil by the end of the decade by opening up more of its vast reserves estimated to be in the region of 144bn barrels for international oil companies to extract.

However, Mr Abdul-Mehdi believes that some of these projections were unrealistic and that a target of doubling production to around 6m bpd by 2020 will be possible provided the country can attract the significant levels of investment that is required to drill new wells and improve infrastructure, which still remains in a poor state of repair after years of unrest.

This is a strategy that Iraq intends to persist with despite the current slump in oil prices, which has seen crude dip below $70 per barrel and calls within the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to slash output to revive prices. Iraq is a founding member of Opec but is currently not bound by the groups quotas, which are intended to prevent countries from over-producing to balance the oil market but often lead to it being accused of acting like a cartel.

Iraq needs oil prices at levels above $80 per barrel to balance its budget and Mr Abdul-Mehdi described the decision by Opec to keep pumping at the same rate as terrible, however that does not prevent the country pursuing its own ambitious plans over the next five years to increase the volume of crude it can export.

People were talking about 12m barrels and I think that was exaggerated, maybe even 9m was too much but I think that Iraq can double its actual production by 2020 and after that. But its a question of investment in the oil industry building the facilities and pipeline networks in the country, he said. We should also go to export gas and we might before 2020. Both pipeline and LNG (liquefied natural gas).

According to Mr Abdul-Mehdi, for Iraq to produce an additional 1m bpd of oil it will require at least $5bn (3.2bn) of investment. Given the countrys fragile finances and the pressure now being exerted by fall oil prices, the minister now believes it is more vital than ever to secure foreign investment into the countrys petroleum industry from companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP, which already operate two of Iraqs biggest oil fields, Majnoon and Rumaila.

BP has the biggest field in the country. Rumaila is almost half the production of the south and they are also interested in Kirkuk. Shell also has interests in Iraq and they are very serious, said Mr Abdul-Mehdi, who met with a senior executive delegation from BP on the side lines of last weeks Opec meetin.

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