Neglect, corruption and bureaucracy has left Umm Qasr, Iraq's deepwater port, unable to respond to growth opportunities.

Umm Qasr, which handles 80% of Iraq's imports and grain imports, is the country's only deepwater port in close proximity to the oil hub of Basra and suffers from a lack of dock space and shocking bureaucracy.

Known as the worst port in the Middle East, the congest port has constant queues for both ships waiting to dock and trucks waiting to collect their cargo.

This have left many foreign oil firms resorting to import their own materials to ensure that projects get off the ground, but the customs and tariffs problems at the port are massive.

Currently, oil majors such as BP, Shell and China's CNPC are working through the problems to ensure they get a piece of the Iraq oilfield projects.

"The human and technical capacities of the Iraqi ports company are insufficient to handle all the work," Dhiya Jaafar, director general of Iraq's state-owned South Oil told Reuters last Friday.