DNO ready to spend in Iraq

OSLO, Norway, May 28 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy company DNO said Thursday it plans to invest more on its assets in the Kurdish north of Iraq as the business cycle improves.

"We are ramping up production, export and local sales following the recently completed Tawke capacity expansion," Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said in a statement. "We will dust off investment plans as our revenue stream continues to grow."

DNO in a quarterly statement early this month 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.

For first quarter 2015, production from the DNO-operated Tawke field in the north of Iraq was 104,925 barrels of oil per day, of which about 8 percent was sold in the local Kurdish market. For the current quarter to date, the company said production averaged 146,309 bpd, of which roughly 18 percent was sold in the local market.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its latest monthly market report total Iraqi oil demand declined by about 100,000 bpd in March, the tenth straight month of decline.

DNO in early May completed a two-year investment program to double the number of wells in the Tawke prospect and improve pipeline capacity. It set a daily production record at Tawke of just over 150,000 barrels of oil and installed capacity to hit the 200,000 bpd mark.

OPEC said total Iraqi oil production for April was 3.67 million bpd, up 1.2 percent from the previous month.