Gazprom Neft Starts Production at Iraq Badra Oilfield

Russia's Gazprom Neft (SIBN.ME), the oil arm of state-run Gazprom, has started initial commercial oil production from its Badra oilfield in Iraq, the oil ministry said on Wednesday.

Production from Badra started on Monday at an average of 15,000 barrels per day and is expected to reach 170,000 bpd of crude oil by 2017, the ministry said in a statement.

"Oil flow from Badra has started on Monday to fill the oilfield storages in preparing to feed the export," said ministry spokesman Asim Jihad.

The oilfield is located in the Wasit Province in eastern Iraq with an estimated 3 billion barrels of oil in reserve. The Russian company submitted a tender in December 2009 and signed a contract with the government in January 2010 to develop the field.

Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said last week that in other parts of the country would not affect its southern oil facilities and said current daily production was running at 3.15 million bpd.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed, editing by David Evans)