OREANDA-NEWS. June 02, 2011. China National Petroleum Corp. said it has shipped the first crude oil cargo produced by its joint-venture oil field in Iraq back to China.

A Very Large Crude Carrier, carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil, departed for China on May 28 from Iraq's Basrah port, CNPC said on its website.

The state-owned CNPC signed a crude oil export agreement with the Iraqi government on April 12, and the cargo shows that costs and remuneration fees for developing Iraq's giant Rumaila oil field are starting to be paid back, it said.

U.K. oil major BP PLC (BP) and CNPC signed a USD 15 billion 20-year service contract with the Iraqi government in November 2009 to develop Iraq's largest producing oil field, the Rumaila.

The consortium--in which BP holds a 38% stake, CNPC 37% and Iraq's South Oil Co. the remaining 25%--raised crude output from Rumaila by 100,000 barrels a day, or 10%, to 1.17 million barrels a day in December, CNPC said.