Peregraf — Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) on Sunday responded directly to statements by Norwegian oil company DNO, stressing that all international oil companies operating in extraction and production in the Kurdistan Region are required to deliver their produced crude oil to SOMO.
In a clarification issued today, SOMO reaffirmed its full commitment to the agreement with the Kurdistan Region and said it is continuing efforts to ensure uninterrupted loading and export operations, despite logistical challenges and limited storage capacity at Turkey’s Ceyhan port.
The statement came in response to a Reuters report dated September 26, 2025, which cited a company operating in the Kurdistan Region as saying it would continue selling its oil independently via the Iraq–Turkey pipeline outside the recent agreement between Baghdad and Erbil.
SOMO underlined that the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Natural Resources has repeatedly confirmed its commitment to the agreement, which obliges all international companies operating in the Region’s oil fields to hand over their produced crude to SOMO, with the sole exception of volumes allocated for local consumption.
The organization reiterated its commitment to transparency, coordination with relevant authorities, and protecting the public interest, emphasizing that the agreement is essential to maintaining stability in Kurdistan’s oil export operations.
DNO Expands Operations in Kurdistan
DNO, the first Western oil company to enter the Kurdistan Region in 2004, has played a key role in developing the Region’s modern oil industry. The company has also expanded offshore Norway and expects to end 2025 with net production of about 90,000 barrels of oil and gas equivalent per day.
On December 11, 2025, DNO announced it was stepping up operations in the Kurdistan Region after surpassing 500 million barrels of oil produced from the Tawke license, where it holds a 75% operating stake.
Drilling is scheduled to resume at the Tawke license following a two-and-a-half-year spending halt after the 2023 closure of the Iraq–Turkey export pipeline. Two rigs, “DQE-51” and DNO’s own “Sindy,” have been mobilized to drill eight wells through 2026, as the company targets a 25% increase in gross operated production to 100,000 barrels per day.
The Tawke license includes the Tawke and Peshkabir fields, among the largest fields in the Kurdistan Region operated by an international company.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region resumed in late September after more than two years of suspension, following an interim agreement between Baghdad, Erbil and international oil companies.