PetroChina gets stake in Exxon Mobil field

Subsequent problems with security and infrastructure have forced that target to be reduced to 9 million barrels a day by 2020, but the West Qurna field still plays a prominent role in achieving that goal.

As China's energy demand continues to rise, it will become the main customer for Iraqi oil by the 2030s, according to a report released by the Paris-based International Energy Agency late last year.

The agency predicted that oil output in Iraq will exceed 6 million barrels a day in 2020 and rise to more than 8 million barrels a day by 2035.

"Iraq will emerge as a major new oil producer by the 2030s. Its main customer will be China, and half of Iraqi oil production will go to China," said Fatih Birol, the agency's chief economist.

Meanwhile, China is expected to continue to invest substantially in Iraqi oil production infrastructure.

However, Wang Zhen, deputy head of the China University of Petroleum, said that Chinese companies should prepare for possible political risks in Iraq, even though the country has become more stable since the war.

"Chinese companies are becoming more mature than before in terms of overseas investments in the oil sector," he said.

China is already the world's second-largest oil importer after the US and its dependency on energy imports is on the rise.

According to the General Administration of Customs, China's crude oil imports rose 5.4 percent year-on-year to 210 metric million metric tons in the first nine months of 2013.