DNO, the Norwegian oil and gas operator, has celebrated the 20th anniversary of the signing of its first production sharing contracts in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. These contracts, signed in mid-2004, marked the start of a journey that has created a modern oil industry in Kurdistan, helped transform the local economy and catapulted DNO into the ranks of the largest European exploration and production companies.
The acreage contracted by the Company included the highly prospective, and in DNO’s hands, highly productive, area that today hosts the prolific Tawke and Peshkabir oilfields, the region’s largest operated by an international oil company.
Production from these fields (Tawke started up in 2007 and Peshkabir in 2017) averaged above 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) until pipeline exports from Kurdistan were halted in the first quarter of 2023 with the shutting down of the pipeline through Türkiye to the Mediterranean.
Over the past 20 years, these two DNO-operated fields have together produced more than 450 million barrels, generating USD 17.3 billion in revenues for the Kurdistan Regional Government. In addition, DNO has created well paid jobs, attractive work opportunities and a market for local suppliers of oil industry goods and services.
'We've had feet on the ground in Kurdistan through thick and thin, ISIS and crisis, in addition to all manner of legal, security and payment challenges but have remained resilient and resolute,' said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO's Executive Chairman. 'All the while, other companies large and small have come and gone,' he added. 'We remain firmly committed to Kurdistan and our next challenge is to optimize and monetize our share of production by tapping international markets.'
Despite the recent shutdown of oil exports and subsequent scaling back of investments, DNO has maintained gross production of around 80,000 bopd in 2024, representing a quarter of Kurdistan’s total output. The Company’s net entitlement share is sold on a cash and carry basis and transported by traders by road tanker to local refineries though at a discount to international prices.
DNO holds a 75 percent stake in the Tawke and Peshkabir fields but under the production sharing contract, the Kurdistan Regional Government has received the bulk of the oil produced while the Company and its partner Genel Energy International Limited have paid all costs.
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Source: DNO
