Iraq, Lukoil's Trading Arm To Form Marketing Venture, Ministry Says

BAGHDAD, April 3 (Reuters) - Iraq's state-oil marketer SOMO and the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil have agreed to form a joint crude marketing venture, the Iraqi Oil Ministry website reported.

The venture between SOMO and Litasco would help sell Iraqi crude and train Iraqi staff in marketing, the ministry said in a statement.

Litasco already has a representative office in Iraq, where Lukoil is a major foreign oil producers, according to the website of the Moscow-based company.

SOMO handles exports from areas under control of the central Iraqi government. The Kurdish autonomous government in the north of Iraq sells crude it produces independently. They share output from a disputed field in the northern Kirkuk area.

SOMO's average crude exports was 3.756 million barrels per day in March, the company said last week.

Iraq is the second-largest producer of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Edmund Blair)