Iraq's oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani has said that the massive oil spill at a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico is not expected to affect the country's current or future projects to develop its giant oilfields, Reuters has reported. BP had said it would invest around $15bn to develop Iraq's largest oilfield at Rumaila, where BP and its partner, China's CNPC, plan to boost output to 2.85 million barrels per day from around 1.066 million bpd. "We are totally comfortable with the performance of BP in developing Rumaila," he said. "The pace of work (in Rumaila) is continuing quickly and according to the plan we agreed on with the company."