Norway's DNO paid for Kurdish oil exports

OSLO, Norway, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Norwegian oil and gas company DNO announced it became the latest player in the Kurdish oil fields to receive government payments for oil exports.

The Kurdish government in Iraq in early August announced it would allocate some of its revenue to international oil companies on a monthly basis to help cover their expenses.

The Kurdish north hosts some of the larger oil fields in Iraq and while the Kurdish government said crude oil exports are its principle source of revenue, it said it recognized energy companies operating in the region face difficulties moving forward without their share.

DNO announced it received a $30 million payment from the Kurdistan Regional Government for oil exports from the Tawke oil field in the region.

A section of an Iraqi oil pipeline to a Turkish sea port was bombed in July by militants with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish initials PKK. The group, which has been waging war with the Turkish government, has been accused of having ties with the group calling itself the Islamic State.

DNO said operations at its Tawke oil field continued uninterrupted during the shut down of the pipeline in Turkey. The pipeline has a maximum capacity of around 400,000 barrels of oil per day.

DNO said production from Tawke to date averaged about 157,000 bpd, of which the bulk was transferred to the Kurdish government. About 20,000 bpd was sold by DNO to the local market and another 3,500 bpd processed in a local Kurdish refinery.

Rivals Genel Energy and Gulf Keystone Petroleum confirmed Kurdish government payments earlier this month. Companies working in the region in the past scaled back operations because of a lack of payment.

The Kurdish government in early 2015 reached a deal with Baghdad to export some of its crude oil in exchange for a portion of overall oil revenue.