Iraq Orders Kurdistan Oil Firms to Resume Operations After Months-Long Halt

Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali Falih Al-Zaidi directed oil companies operating in Kurdistan to resume operations beginning on Thursday. The order followed a meeting with company executives and Kurdistan Regional Government officials at which Al-Zaidi stressed the need for joint action and an appropriate operating environment.

Al-Zaidi noted that damage from the disruption of oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz had been significant and called for intensified efforts to offset losses by addressing obstacles to higher production.

The Strait of Hormuz has been de facto closed for more than three months. Norway-based DNO halted operations in Kurdistan immediately after the Iran war began. Following the early-April ceasefire, DNO restarted field operations on April 9, including workovers of existing wells, and relaunched its previously announced eight-well drilling campaign.

The company is now preparing to resume production from the Tawke and Peshkabir fields at stepped-up rates. Iraq plans to triple its pipeline exports of crude oil through Kurdistan to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan within three months. The Iraqi government this week approved a plan to raise those exports to 770,000 barrels per day from the current level of about 220,000 barrels per day.

Iraq is OPEC’s second-largest producer. Oil from Kurdistan and northern Iraq fields is shipped via pipeline to Ceyhan and is viewed as a potential lifeline for export revenues while shipments from the southern port of Basrah remain curtailed.