Iran started preliminary production in the Yadavaran oilfield in the southwest that is shared with Iraq, with the opening of a first well.

Harvest Natural Resources is seeing good progress in its drilling operations at Al Ghubar North-1 (AGN-1) exploration well onshore Oman, the company said.

Iraq's crude oil production rose to an average 2.65mn bpd in 2011, an increase of 12 per cent over 2010, while exports shot up by 14 per cent to 2.165mn bpd, according to Platts.

Iraq has once again delayed an auction for a dozen oil and gas exploration blocks until the end of May, according to a top official.

Total is weeks away from securing oil exploration licenses in the Kurdish region of Iraq, reported the Sunday Times.