Oil company Shell and Malaysia's state-owned Petronas oil company signed a contract on Sunday to work on Iraq's giant Majnoon oil field.

In December, Shell and Petronas beat a rival bid from France's Total and China's CNPC to develop the 12.6bn barrel field in southern Iraq. The field currently produces 46,000 barrels per day. Shell and Petronas have pledged to increase that output to 1.8 million barrels per day. The deal was signed at Iraq's Oil Ministry in the presence of Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani and Mounir Bouaziz, an executive of Shell Gas and Power, as reported by the BBC. Royal Dutch Shell owns 60% of the venture, with Petronas owning the remainder.