Iraq’s ambitious crude capacity expansion is running up against bottlenecks, but nevertheless it is progressing.

Russian oil firms together with China’s state-owned CNPC - lead operator at the 120,000 b/d Ahdab project, the 535,000 b/d Halfaya development and partner with BP on the giant 2.85mn b/d Rumaila development - are spearheading the capacity drive.On 14 April, CNPC announced it had started construction of a 100,000 b/d, 60 well phase 2 for Halfaya. This is due to come on stream in “the second quarter of 2014,” CNPC said. (CONTINUED - 320 WORDS)