Gazprom’s Badra field in southern Iraq has started up and is now producing 15,000 b/d. But instability threatens to eat into the country’s oil output.

It may be more than a year late but the start-up of the Badra oil field, operated by Russia’s Gazprom Neft, will help bolster Baghdad’s message that Iraq’s southern oil fields remain untouched by the violence and political inertia that has gripped the country. (CONTINUED - 1220 WORDS)