MOSCOW - Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil has started drilling new wells at Iraq's West Qurna-2 oilfield, the company said on Thursday.

The new wells will allow the company to increase output to 480,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2020 from the current level of 400,000 bpd, it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova and Oksana Kobzeva; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Maria Kiselyova) ((Tom.Balmforth@thomsonreuters.com))