ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - “Kurdistan is part of DNO's DNA,” the Norwegian oil and gas operator’s top executive told Rudaw. This while Erbil’s natural resources minister added that delays in forming Iraq’s next government would not disrupt Kurdish oil exports, which resumed under a September deal set to be automatically extended if a stalemate unfolds.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Wednesday event celebrating half a billion barrels produced from the Region since 2004, DNO Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said, “We want to remain very involved in Kurdistan,” adding, “Kurdistan is part of DNO's DNA now and the company is identified with Kurdistan.”
He further praised the “incredible partnership” with Kurdistan, highlighting its “contractual stability” and investor-friendly environment despite being at the heart of a volatile region.
“There's a lot going on around us in Kurdistan - of course in Syria, in Iraq itself, in Iran,” Mossavar-Rahmani said, calling it “a tough neighbourhood.” Still, he emphasized, “We have felt safe and supported [by Erbil], and we want to continue being an important part of the oil industry here in this Region.”
DNO is Norway’s oldest oil company and the leading international operator in the Kurdistan Region. It has played a pioneering role in the local industry, managing the prolific Tawke and Peshkhabur fields in the Region’s northern Duhok province.
Oil fields in the Kurdistan Region have repeatedly been targeted by drone and missile attacks, which notably intensified throughout 2025.
Despite these security challenges, DNO announced in late December that it would be “revving up” operations in Kurdistan, including the resumption of drilling in its flagship Tawke license in Duhok province.
Steady flow
In late September, Erbil, Baghdad, and international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the Region reached a tripartite agreement allowing the resumption of oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline.
Prior to that, Kurdish oil exports had been halted since March 2023 following a Paris-based arbitration ruling in favor of Baghdad, which concluded that Ankara had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by permitting Erbil to export oil independently starting in 2014.
At the DNO event on Wednesday, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Acting Minister of Natural Resources, Kamal Mohammed, told Rudaw that “some 22 million barrels of [Kurdish] oil have been delivered to [the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization] SOMO” for export under the tripartite agreement.
He added that “so far, nearly $214 million has been paid to [international oil] companies [IOCs] for oil production and transportation costs.”
Under the September deal, an initial advance of $16 per barrel was set to cover extraction and transportation costs payable to the IOCs. The amount however is temporary and will remain in place until an independent expert firm provides a more accurate cost assessment, with the agreement specifying that payments are to be made in the form of crude oil at prevailing market prices rather than in cash.
In early January, Ali Nizar, Director-General of SOMO, told Rudaw that the federal oil ministry “has signed a contract with the British consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, which will begin work in the near future to calculate the actual production costs at oil fields in the Kurdistan Region.”
He added that “the tripartite agreement to resume guarantees continuity of the Kurdistan Region’s oil production and ensures that exports will not be halted again.”
In late December, Nizar told Rudaw that the September agreement had been extended by an additional three months, pushing its expiry to the end of March 2026 from its original end-2025 deadline.
Iraq held its early legislative elections on November 9, followed by the general vote two days later. Since then, political parties have been negotiating to form the next cabinet.
However, the KRG’s Natural Resources Minister, Mohammed, confirmed to Rudaw that with the government formation at a stalemate, “the tripartite agreement will be automatically extended again,” reassuring that Kurdish oil exports will continue without interruption.
Of note, Kamal Atroshi, a prominent energy advisor to KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, told Rudaw earlier this month that any sustainable solution to the oil dispute between Erbil and Baghdad hinges on "oil integration,” calling for “a unified strategy” in which oil revenues are channeled “directly into investment” to reduce the country’s total dependence on hydrocarbons.
According to the KRG’s former natural resources minister, such a shift requires a political climate that recognizes the unique structure of the Kurdish energy industry, particularly its reliance on international investment to drive long-term technological and industrial growth.
He stressed, however, that "production cost is a very fundamental part" of this ecosystem, as companies cannot operate if payments are withheld. With an industry benchmark estimated at $16 per barrel, Atroshi asserts that the federal government must cover investment gaps for any firm whose costs exceed this figure as failing to secure these payments risks a total decline in production.
Payam Sarbast contributed to this report from Erbil, Kurdistan Region.
