Optimistic: Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani
Iraq keen to turn on Kurd export taps
Iraq expects to resume oil exports from its Kurdistan region "in the near future", Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani told reporters today.
Exports had been stopped for several months by a dispute between the largely autonomous Kurdish region and the Baghdad government over oil deals Kurdish leaders had signed independently.
"Finding a solution ... to these contracts will take a long time. But exporting oil will resume in the near future, God willing," Reuters quoted Shahristani as saying.
"The resumption of exports has no connection with finding a solution to these oil contracts."
Norwegian producer DNO - which operates the Tawke field in Kurdistan - saw its shares jump 10.5% on the news.
Exports - which only started in June last year - stopped in October as the row between Arbil and Baghdad intensified.
Separately, Shahristani said that production capacity at the Ahdab oilfield, which is being developed by China National Petroleum Corporation, was found to be 200,000 bpd after seismic surveys, up from 115,000 bpd.