An Iraqi official says a consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell has boosted production at a prized oil field in the country's south to 175,000 barrels a day, speaking at a ceremony formally inaugurating commercial production.

The head of the state-run South Oil Company, Dhia Jaafar, said Sunday that Shell and its partner, Malaysia's state-run Petronas, plan to increase production from the nearly 12.5 billion-barrel Majnoon field to more than 200,000 barrels per day in early 2014.

It is located in Basra province, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

The deal was awarded in Dec. 2009 with a pledge to reach 1.8 million barrels per day over 10 years. Then, production rated about 45,000 barrels per day. The consortium had to rehabilitate existing infrastructure and add new facilities.