CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Oryx Petroleum Corp. Ltd. of Canada said Wednesday it made an oil discovery in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq.
Oryx Petroleum said oil flowed during a test of the Zey Gawra area in the Kurdish north at an average rate of 4,800 barrels per day. The company said the Kurdistan Regional Government was notified of the discovery.
"We are already planning our first Zey Gawra appraisal well and we are confident that the discovery will be established as commercial," Chief Operating Officer Henry Legarre said in a statement Wednesday.
The license area is near Kirkuk. Oryx Petroleum said a third-party estimate of the Zey Gawra prospect indicated it may contain more than 23 million barrels of oil.
The announcement comes amid tensions between the semiautonomous KRG and the central government in Baghdad over the oil sector. Baghdad says a proposed KRG oil deal with the Turkish government violates the Iraqi Constitution though Kurdish leaders have brushed off the concerns.
