BGP says the Al-Ahdab field, about 180 kilometres southeast of Baghdad in the province of Wasit, poses a high security risk prompting the firm to hire an international consultancy firm to carry out an assessment before it began work on 11 March.

Al-Waha, a joint venture of CNPC and another Chinese company, Zhenhua Oil Company, estimates the field, which had an approximate pre-war production capacity of 90,000-barrels-a-day (b/d), will produce 110,000 b/d over the next two decades (MEED 27:8:08).

The first output is expected in three years.

Iraq originally signed a $700m deal with CNPC in 1997 to develop the field, but CNPC suspended the project because of UN sanctions against Iraq (MEED 11:8:08).