OSLO, Norway, May 6 (UPI) -- Though it reached its capacity target at an oil field in the Kurdish north of Iraq, Norwegian energy company DNO said Wednesday it suffered heavy losses.
DNO said it hit a daily production record at the Tawke field of just over 150,000 barrels of oil, adding it had the installed capacity to hit the 200,000 bpd mark.
"Discussions are underway with the [Kurdish] Ministry of Natural Resources to set out future production levels, including the split between export deliveries and local sales," it said in a statement.
DNO said its production for the first quarter of 2014 was 45,744 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which includes oil from the Tawke field in the Kurdish region of Iraq. First quarter 2015 production averaged 104,925 barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which nearly 90 percent was exported from Iraq.
Several companies last year pulled non-essential staff out of northern Iraq as a security precaution against threats from the group calling itself the Islamic State. This quarter, DNO said weak sales to the Kurdish market and the low price of oil forced it to cut capital spending on the back of reduced revenues.
"Higher Tawke production, including higher deliveries to [the Turkish sea port of] Ceyhan, should help unlock payments to DNO," Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO's executive chairman, said in a statement. "The timing and extent of export payments will drive new investment at Tawke which will be required to sustain the high production rates."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said exports from member state Iraq have increased from the Turkish port, though local demand for oil "recorded a significant drop in volume."
Total Iraqi oil production for March was 3.6 million bpd, a 9 percent increase from February.
