ECONOMY
A DNO worker at the Tawke oil field near Zakho in Kurdistan Region's Duhok province. File photo: AFP
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Norwegian oil firm DNO on Thursday said that 2024 amounted to a year of “stellar production” with an increase in profits from the Kurdistan Region’s oil despite the Iraq-Turkey pipeline remaining closed.
At its flagship Tawke and Peshkabir fields, DNO increased production “by 70 percent year-on-year to 78,600 boepd [barrels of oil equivalent per day] in 2024, with oil sold at its Fish Khabur terminal as the Iraq-Turkiye export pipeline remained shut in,” the company said in a statement.
The Tawke field, which DNO holds a 75 percent stake in, generated $10 million in profits per month, and while no new wells were drilled on site, oil output upped “by bringing three previously drilled wells onstream and by workovers and interventions on more than 20 other wells across the license,” according to the statement.
Its oil was sold for an average of $35 per barrel.
“Our Kurdistan team is doing a terrific job. Maintaining, never mind increasing, production from mature carbonate reservoirs without new drilling is rare, even exceptional,” said DNO’s Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani.
The Kurdistan Region is preparing to resume oil exports after the Iraqi parliament approved an amendment to the federal budget law, which increases compensation for international oil companies (IOCs) in the Region.
The amendment raised oil production and transportation costs to $16 per barrel, a substantial raise from the $6.90 set in the federal budget that was passed in June 2023.
On Wednesday, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) instructed its natural resources ministry to coordinate with oil companies and relevant bodies to restart oil exports “as soon as possible.”
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
The KRG has struggled to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis that was exacerbated by the halt of Kurdish oil exports. Erbil is reliant on its local income and federal budget funds.
At its flagship Tawke and Peshkabir fields, DNO increased production “by 70 percent year-on-year to 78,600 boepd [barrels of oil equivalent per day] in 2024, with oil sold at its Fish Khabur terminal as the Iraq-Turkiye export pipeline remained shut in,” the company said in a statement.
The Tawke field, which DNO holds a 75 percent stake in, generated $10 million in profits per month, and while no new wells were drilled on site, oil output upped “by bringing three previously drilled wells onstream and by workovers and interventions on more than 20 other wells across the license,” according to the statement.
Its oil was sold for an average of $35 per barrel.
“Our Kurdistan team is doing a terrific job. Maintaining, never mind increasing, production from mature carbonate reservoirs without new drilling is rare, even exceptional,” said DNO’s Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani.
The Kurdistan Region is preparing to resume oil exports after the Iraqi parliament approved an amendment to the federal budget law, which increases compensation for international oil companies (IOCs) in the Region.
The amendment raised oil production and transportation costs to $16 per barrel, a substantial raise from the $6.90 set in the federal budget that was passed in June 2023.
On Wednesday, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) instructed its natural resources ministry to coordinate with oil companies and relevant bodies to restart oil exports “as soon as possible.”
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
The KRG has struggled to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis that was exacerbated by the halt of Kurdish oil exports. Erbil is reliant on its local income and federal budget funds.
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