Norwegian oil company resumes oil production in Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Norwegian oil company DNO has said it had partly resumed oil production at Tawke fields in Kurdistan Region's Duhok province following months of stoppage, according to a press release.

Production resumed last month, delivering oil to the local market at a discount price, as the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline remains shut, a press release from the European oil company read early Thursday.

Baghdad ordered the closure of the Pipeline on March 25 after it had claimed victory in an arbitration court case against Turkey for allowing Kurdistan Region's oil to be independently marketed. 

"Field output is currently averaging 40,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd)," the company said, adding one-half of the production is delivered to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) while the rest goes to the local trading companies that transport the oil through tankers.

Prior to the halt, the oil company was producing more than 107,000 barrels of oil per day in 2022, according to official figures. 

“While there is no light at the end of the export pipeline, we are seeing the headlights of more and more incoming tanker trucks loading up our Tawke cargoes on a cash-and-carry basis,” DNO Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said. 

In late July, the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) called for a speedy reopening of the Iraq-Turkey pipeline for oil exports four months after the closure of the pipeline in March.

So far, talks between Kurdish, Iraqi, and Turkish officials have failed to find a resolution to oil exports.