Iraq has the third largest conventional oil reserves in the world, but is not even in the top 10 oil-producing countries. The strength of the government’s desire to increase output at once is understandable. But it should not put that aim ahead of obtaining a broad political consensus on how to develop and distribute the country’s oil wealth.

After 30 years of national ownership, Iraq’s government is rightly looking to bring in expertise from abroad to help increase output. Yesterday, it announced it would complete contracts with foreign companies for the development of currently active oilfields by early next year. It plans to increase output from 2.5m barrels per day today to 4.5m barrels per day by 2013.