The announcement comes a day after officials said production at the supergiant Rumaila field also would allow developers BP and China's CNPC to start recovering their costs.
Zubair and Rumaila are among a series of massive oilfields Iraq auctioned off to international companies in 2009. The contracts could in theory take Iraq's oil capacity to 12 million bpd, which would rival leading exporter Saudi Arabia.
The
