Geography of Iraq - Resources and Land Use

Resources and Land Use

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur

Land use:
arable land: 12%
permanent crops: 17%
permanent pastures: 13%
forests and woodland: 2%
other: 79% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 25,500 km2 or 9,800 sq mi (1993 est.)

While its proven oil reserves of 112 billion barrels (17.8×10^9 m3) ranks Iraq second in the world behind Saudi Arabia, the United States Department of Energy estimates that up to 90 percent of the country remains unexplored. Unexplored regions of Iraq could yield an additional 100 billion barrels (16×10^9 m3). Iraq's oil production costs are among the lowest in the world. However, only about 2,000 oil wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared to about 1 million wells in Texas alone.