Iraq oil production was higher this year than since before Saddam Hussein took power. The problem: getting it out of the country. Iraqi oil fields pumped 3.6 million barrels of crude a day on average in February, 50% more than four years ago. That beat—if only for a month—the country’s annual-output record, 3.5 million barrels a day, in 1979 during Iraq’s petroleum heyday. Companies including PLC, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and ExxonMobil Corp. have invested billions of dollars to revive oil fields battered by decades of war, sanctions and neglect. But Iraq’s government has been slow to modernize the infrastructure to move that oil from wells to tankers. With such ancient pipes and paltry storage, even minor disruptions—routine pump maintenance, say, or a windy day in the Persian Gulf—can force companies to shut down wells. Violent attacks on infrastructure and personnel are still frequent. And bureaucracy and corruption have […]