BAGHDAD, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Iraq started operating a newnatural gas processing plant for oil fields in the southeasternregion on Sunday as part of a plan to use gas that waspreviously flared to generate electricity, the oil ministry saidin a statement.
The plant located in Misan province, on the border withIran, will process gas associated with crude pumped at the Fakkaand Bazargan fields, it said.
All Misan fields to be brought on stream in the future willbe connected to the plant.
OPEC's second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, Iraq flares about 70 percent of its gas output, according to theBasrah Gas Company which the nation set up in partnership withShell and Mitsubishi.
Basrah Gas this year also started exporting cargoes of gascondensates and liquefied petroleum gas processed from fields inthe Basrah region.
Thirteen years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppledSaddam Hussein, the country still suffers from an acuteelectricity shortage as it lacks power stations and gas supply.
(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by Jason Neely)