Iraq is planning to gird up its military presence in the oil-rich north of the country, where insurgents and saboteurs have targeted workers, pipelines and faclities.
Iraq's northern fields had produced an estimated 8.5 million barrels of crude in July, but repeated attacks on workers and infrastructure have made it difficult for the country to lift the production back to pre-war levels of about 2.5 million to 3 million barrels a day.
A recent attack on oil workers killed four and injured another.
There is already a miltary presence in the area which will now be supplemented in an effort to protect and use the pipelines that have been down for some months now.
Iraqi authorities have also launched a campaign against smugglers who steal from gas stations and peddle the fuel on the black market.
Al-Shahristani said that the country aims to increase production to about 4 million barrels a day but conceded that it would require $20 billion investment in infrastructure to achieve that and added that "soft" loans could be a solution so that Iraq's budget isn't stretched.
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