BAGHDAD, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The daily crude production and export in October in Iraq hit new high in three years with about 2.70 million barrels in production and over 1.80 million barrels for export, the state-run al-Sabah newspaper reported on Tuesday.

    Hussein al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister, was also quoted as saying Monday at a press conference that the crude production of Iraq is expected to reach 3 million barrels at the end of this year.

    Al-Shahristani singled out that the daily oil export last month rose to 1.8 million barrels, the highest level since December 2005when this figure was merely above 1.5 million barrels, said the paper.

    The increase in oil production and export have raised the oil revenue in the past ten months up to 25.8 billion U.S. dollars, it said.

    Al-Shahrstani also revealed that the ministry has planned to develop about 200 oil wells in 2008 across the country, putting an end to Iraq's disability to discover or drill new oil wells, the paper said.

    In December 2005, Iraqi oil export fell to their lowest level due to bad management of the reconstruction efforts, widespread corruption among government officials, and sabotage of the oil pipes by insurgents.