Norwegian oil and gas firm DNO has received a second payment of $60m from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for oil exports from the Tawke field in the north of Iraq.

The company had previously reported temporary reductions in production from the Tawke field to permit field performance evaluation, according to a 21 September company release.

“Reservoir monitoring efforts are ongoing, but production has now been increased to 55,000 barrels a day (b/d). Drilling and testing of exploration wells continue on other DNO blocks in Kurdistan as do engineering studies to increase output capacity of the fields in the Tawke and Erbil licences,” says the press release.

DNO received its first payment from the KRG for $103.7m in June. The company has exported about 50,000 barrels a day (b/d) from the region since the end of February through the Kirkuk pipeline to the port of Ceyhan on the Turkish coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Tawke field has been producing for almost two years, but output has been restricted to domestic sales, while Baghdad blocked exports from the Kurdish region (MEED 15:5:11).