OSLO, Norway, May 24 (UPI) -- Norwegian oil and gas company DNO International said tests from a field in the Kurdish region of Iraq yielded an average flow rate of more than 100,000 bpd.
DNO has a majority stake in the Tawke field in the Kurdish region of Iraq alongside Turkish energy company Genel Energy and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
DNO said a 72-hour test of from the Tawke field averaged more than 100,000 barrels per day. Tests were conducted during work to update pipeline delivery systems.
"We are very pleased with the performance of the field," Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said in a statement. "Having met this first deliverability milestone, we continue to reinvest to double Tawke production capacity."
Pipeline deliveries from the Kurdish north are vulnerable to aging infrastructure and sabotage.
The semiautonomous Kurdish government gave Genel permission in January to export crude oil to Turkey by road shipments. Genel is working to convert a natural gas pipeline to facilitate additional oil deliveries.
Export restrictions had been in place as a sign of growing frustration with the central Iraqi government over oil laws in the country.
