Gulf Keystone Petroleum will produce 40,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) within the coming weeks after the Iraqi Kurdistan-focused explorer's field development plan was approved, the region's energy ministry said on Wednesday.

Discovered in 2009, the Shaikan field is Gulf Keystone's prize asset, from which it aims to produce as much as 150,000 bpd in the next three years and 250,000 bpd by 2018.

Production from the block will help the Kurdistan region reach its overall oil export targets of one million barrels per day by the end of 2015, and two million barrels per day by the end of the decade.

Gulf Keystone operates Shaikan, in which Kalegran Ltd, a subsidiary of Hungarian oil and gas group MOL, has a stake, as well as Texas Keystone Inc.