ERBIL, Iraq, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Crude oil from the northern Kurdish provinces in Iraq started flowing through a pipeline to Turkey after a series of delays, an official said.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry in a January deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government paved the way for the resumption of oil exports in February.
The agreement called for about half of the petroleum products produced in the Kurdish provinces to be used for domestic demand with the rest exported through Turkish ports on the Mediterranean Sea.
Oil flowed for just four months after it started in June 2009 because of legal disputes between the Kurdish government and Baghdad.
A senior official in Iraq's North Oil Co. told al-Sumaria news agency that oil started flowing from the Tawke oil field to Turkish ports.
"This morning the oil from Tawke field started to move through the strategic export pipeline to Ceyhan," he said on condition of anonymity.
DNO International and its partners started exports from the Tawke oil field in June 2009. The company announced this week that it started export production tests at the Tawke field.
"At present, the tested volumes are around 10,000 barrels of oil per day," the company said in a statement.
