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

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

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

BP received approval from the British government to resume production after the government put the field under a temporary management scheme whereby all revenue due to Tehran will be held until sanctions are lifted, the spokesman said.

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

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