UPDATE 1-BP to restart North Sea gas field half-owned by Iran

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LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - BP will restart the Rhumgas field in the UK North Sea, half-owned by Iran's National OilCompany, four years after the field was shut down due to Westernsanctions, a BP spokesman said on Friday.

Production from the field, which supplied 4 percent to 5percent of Britain's demand before its shutdown, is expected tobegin this weekend.

BP received approval from the British government to resumeproduction after the government put the field under a temporarymanagement scheme whereby all revenue due to Tehran will be helduntil sanctions are lifted, the spokesman said.

The field started pumping gas in December 2005 and cost 350million pounds ($565.6 million) to build.

The British government gave the green light for theresumption late last year in order to avoid damage to the highpressure, high temperature gas field. (Reporting by Ron Bousso, editing by David Evans and JaneMerriman)