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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 23:10 GMT | more >>

DNO jumps on talk of Baghdad deal



By Upstream staff 

Shares in Norwegian producer DNO jumped as much as 24% today on unconfirmed reports of a political agreement for Baghdad to back oil contracts signed by the Kurdish regional government.

DNO, the first western explorer to drill for oil in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, has production sharing contracts with the Kurdistan government. It needs Baghdad's permission to start exporting its oil from north Iraq.

"We don't have any other information other than what's been seen in the media," DNO boss Helge Eide told Reuters.

Norwegian financial news agency TDN Finans picked up reports saying that Baghdad has reached a deal with Kurdistan on oil.

DNO stock traded up 20.6% at Nkr10.53 ($2.08) at 0857 GMT, making it the biggest gainer in Oslo where the bourse was up 1.2%.

An Iraqi Oil Ministry official denied a deal was made. He told Reuters he was "astonished" at the reports and added that the ministry continues to view the contracts signed by the Kurdish regional authorities as "illegal and void".

But Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the country was close to agreeing the final version of the long-delayed oil and gas law, giving some hope to investors betting on DNO quickly winning an export licence.

Iraq's central government in Baghdad and Kurdish officials were due to resume talks soon to iron out disputes holding up the landmark draft oil law, a deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament told Reuters yesterday.

Up to now, Baghdad has considered oil deals signed by the Kurdish authorities as illegal and said it would bar companies with such contracts from oil deals in the rest of Iraq.

DNO has long maintained that its production deals with Kurdistan are legal under the Iraqi constitution. The Kurdish authorities are negotiating the export licence with Baghdad on behalf of DNO.

"Once the oil law is in place, DNO should be able to export oil through the federal oil pipeline," Eric Nasby, an analyst at Handelsbanken in Oslo, told Reuters.

"We have not seen any concrete progress, but have assumed it's there. Today's reports can be interpreted in a way that things are happening, even though we have to wait for confirmation," Nasby added.

On 3 April, Eide told Reuters he was "quite confident" of gaining a licence to export Iraqi oil this year, enabling it to quadruple production to about 30,000 barrels per day.

DNO now produces about 7000 bpd from the Tawke oilfield in Kurdistan. It has said it will sell its oil on the local market until it can export its output in pipelines to Turkey, Syria or other routes.


Wednesday, 16 April, 2008, 08:27 GMT  | last updated: Wednesday, 16 April, 2008, 09:51 GMT

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