OSLO, Norway, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy company DNO International said it's redirected about 30 percent of its oil production in the Kurdish region of Iraq to the domestic market.
DNO said the move to redirect one-third of its production would help improve its overall revenue stream.
"We are very pleased to have been given the green light by the authorities to commence cash sales to the local market and at a price twice last year's levels," DNO President Helge Eide said in a statement.
The company said exports have declined because of ongoing "technical glitches" related to the oil pipeline system in northern Iraq. Exports average around 25,000 barrels of oil per day.
DNO said it signed contracts with three domestic buyers for around 675,000 barrels of oil from the Tawke and Bastora fields. The selling price was around $50 per barrel and daily deliveries for each contract were about 10,000 bpd. The company didn't specify the names of the domestic buyers.
DNO in June said the recoverable reserve estimate from the Tawke field stood at 636 million barrels of oil, up from the 305 million barrels estimated in 2010.
DNO and its partners started exports from Iraq in June 2009 but that was suspended briefly because of legal disputes between the Kurdish government and Baghdad.
