Genel's Hayward: Iraq Oil Growth Overstated

The head of Iraqi Kurdistan-focused oil producer Genel said Tuesday that Iraq's crude output would grow far slower than many expect, as the drop in oil prices reduces investments and stokes instability in the country.

Genel's chief executive, Tony Hayward, the former CEO of oil major BP, said the world has entered a new era of lower oil prices, predicting that they would not recover to the $110 a barrel level they averaged between 2011 and 2013 in the next few years.

"It is very clear Iraq will not be able to deliver the quantum of production growth that is baked into people's supply assumptions," Hayward told the annual International Petroleum Week industry conference in London.

Reporting by Ron Bousso and David Sheppard