Oil production starts in al-Qarna field, southern Iraq

Oil production started on Thursday at the al-Qarna oil field in southern Iraq after it had been suspended since 1990.

The director general of the southern Iraq oil field, Rafed al-Dayouni, stressed that al-Qarna oil field is the largest in the world, whose reserves of oil are estimated at US $20 billion. He said it will produce in its preliminary phase 40,000 barrels of oil every day.

Iraq is currently negotiating with foreign companies to develop production in three oil fields in al-Majnoun, Omar River and al-Helfayah.

In another development, the Iraqi weekly al-Zoura' said on Thursday that Iraq and Iran will on Tuesday exchange a new group of remains of victims of the war took place between the two countries between 1980 and 1988.

The Iraqi paper quoted a well-informed source at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry as saying that a meeting of the Iraqi-Iranian joint committee in search of the war victims will be held in the al-Shalamekha region of southern Iraq prior to the "victims' remains" exchange. The paper did not mention the number of remains to be exchanged between the two countries.