BAGHDAD, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's Oil Ministry said Thursday that a state-owned company will drill 40 new oil wells in the giant Majnoon oilfield in the southern province of Basra.

In a ceremony attended by the Oil Minister Thamir al-Ghadban, Iraq's Basra Oil Company signed a deal with Iraqi Drilling Company to drill the new wells, the ministry said in a statement.

It said the deal will help boost output from Majnoon oilfield to 450,000 barrel per day (bpd) in 2021, from its current production of 240,000 bpd.

"The agreement represents an important step to the process of developing the Iraqi oilfields by national efforts," the statement, quoted al-Ghadban, as saying.

Majnoon is a super giant oilfield located some 60 km in northeast of Basra. It is one of the richest oil fields in the world with an estimated reserves of about 38 billion barrels of oil.

Iraq's economy relies heavily on crude oil exports, which account for more than 90 percent of the country's revenues.

In 2017, Iraq announced that its proven oil reserves increased to 153 billion barrels from a previously estimated 143.1 billion barrels.