PetroChina and its partners Total and Petronas Calgari have commenced oil production at the Halfaya oil field in southern Iraq
Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said that the consortium had started production of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the field.
Halfaya, located in the Maysan province of Iraq near the Iranian border, has 4.1 billion barrels in proven reserves, and has been producing oil since early June 2012.
PetroChina, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China's largest energy producer, holds a 37.5 per cent stake in the consortium. Total and Petronas Calgari each hold 18.75 per cent stake in the consortium, while Iraq's state partner holds the remaining 25 per cent.
CNPC, Petronas and Total won the contract to raise production at Halfaya in a public auction for international energy firms in December 2009.
Iraq's oil minister, Abdul Kareem Luaiby, said that the second phase of Halfaya would involve production capacity reaching 200,000 bpd by the end of 2013, while the third phase will have the field pumping a total of 400,000 bpd by the end of 2014.
He added that the consortium was planning to hit production of 600,000 bpd by the end of 2016.
