Peregraf
Norwegian energy company DNO ASA has resumed production at the Tawke and Peshkhabur oilfields in the Kurdistan Region’s Zakho Independent Administration, weeks after drone strikes forced operations to a halt. The company announced Thursday that output has been ramped up on a test basis to 55,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), split evenly between the two fields.
DNO reported a 10% rise in overall net production in Q2 2025 to 92,600 boepd, though Kurdistan volumes fell due to security disruptions. Drone attacks since late June have damaged oilfields and energy infrastructure across Erbil, Duhok, Sulaymaniyah, and Zakho, cutting Kurdistan’s crude production by an estimated 140,000–150,000 barrels per day.
The resumption comes as Erbil and Baghdad push to implement a deal reintegrating Kurdish oil into Iraq’s federal export system via SOMO. Under the federal budget law, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must deliver at least 230,000 bpd in exchange for $16 per barrel. Current production stands at about 130,000 bpd, of which 50,000 are consumed domestically.
KRG officials say drone strikes have undermined their ability to meet the quota, but they continue to transfer available volumes for export through Ceyhan, though the pipeline has remained offline since 2023 due to a legal dispute between Iraq and Turkey.
The oil handover arrangement is tied to a wider Baghdad-Erbil agreement on budget auditing, non-oil revenues, and public sector salaries, which remain unpaid for over 1.2 million employees. Iraqi officials have pledged that once oil deliveries resume at scale, June salaries will be released.