Basra, IRAQ, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell began a test of production at the Iraq's giant Majnoon oilfieldon Friday and aims to boost output to around 190,000 barrels perday (bpd) in October, an Iraqi oil official said.
"The test restart of the oilfield will continue until theend of September and production of around 190,000 barrels perday is expected to be reached in October," said an official fromIraq's South Oil Company who is close to the project.
Shell is in charge of operations at the oilfield, one offour giant southern fields vital to Iraq's ambition to at leastdouble output that is now around 3 million bpd.
OPEC's second biggest producer expects its output to rise by400,000 bpd by the end of this year, with Majnoon providing abig part of that. (Reporting by Aref Mohammed, editing by William Hardy)