NAIROBI, Feb 25 (Xinhua): West African state Mauritania started its oil production yesterday, joining the club of African crude producers, media reports quoted senior executives from the state oil company as saying. The crude was pumped out from the offshore Chinguetti field, forecast to pump 75,000 barrels of oil per day, operated by Woodside Energy in partnership with the state owned Mauritanian Hydrocarbon Company. The 530 million US dollar project is expected to be a big boost to the economy of the impoverished desert state, where close to three million live in abject poverty of less than a dollar a day.
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