The Norwegian international oil company (IOC) DNO and London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum are accelerating their activities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq after crossing major production milestones and seeing renewed momentum in exports that resumed in late September.

Exports were initially halted in March 2023 after Iraq won a Paris-based arbitration case against Turkey, but resumed after a tripartite agreement between Erbil, Baghdad, and the IOCs. According to a Shafaq news agency report, oil exports from the Kurdistan Region have now reached 190,000 barrels per day (bpd).

DNO, the first Western company to enter the Kurdistan Region in 2004, continues to expand its local footprint. On Thursday, the company announced it is revving up operations in the Kurdistan Region as it charges past a major milestone marking 500 million barrels of oil produced from the Tawke license.

“Despite halting new drilling following the 2023 export pipeline closure and the drop in revenues, we are still pumping an impressive 80,000 bpd with continuous, low-cost tweaks to the wells,” said Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani. “Given two decades of experience working these complex reservoirs, we have great confidence in our ability to extract much, much more oil from the fields in this license,” he said, adding, “DNO holds the key to Tawke.”

The Tawke license contains the Tawke and Peshkabir fields, two of the region’s largest operated by an IOC.

Furthermore, Gulf Keystone, a leading independent operator and producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, announced on Wednesday that they had made a smooth transition from trucking sales to pipeline exports via the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline on September 27, 2025, with volumes quickly ramped up toward full well capacity, reaching a gross average production of 44,000 bpd as of December 11.

“2025 has been a milestone year for the Company after pipeline exports from the Shaikan Field were successfully restarted in September following a hiatus of over two and a half years,” Gulf Keystone CEO Jon Harris said. “Liftings allocated to Gulf Keystone and other IOCs commenced in November and we are pleased to have recently received our first payment. 

The process as outlined in the interim exports agreements is working and we look forward to a return to full PSC entitlement at international prices following the international independent consultant’s review.

“Cumulative production from the Shaikan Field recently surpassed 150 million barrels, underlining the scale and quality of the asset,” he added.