Production levels at Iraq's Rumaila oilfield has exceeded the 10 per cent increase required for oil-giants BP and China's CNPC to start recovering development costs.

Abu Dhabi finished construction of a pipeline that runs across the emirate and will transport large quantities of crude from the country's oilfields directly to the coast.

The continuing unrest in Libya has resulted in production at Libyan oilfields being cut by more than half according to the IEA.

Schlumberger, the oil services firm, has been awarded a contract to drill 10 wells in Iraq's West Qurna Phase One oilfield by ExxonMobil and its partners.

Libya does not intend to issue any new oil concession licences this year according to the chairman of the country's National Oil Corporation (NOC) Shokri Ghanem.