London-listed oil company Gulf Keystone Petroleum has said its current daily average production from its Shaikan oil field in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq is in excess of 40,000 barrels a day (b/d).

The latest figures show increased production compared with earlier in the year.

Over May and June, production from the field averaged 38,000 b/d.

In a statement released on 15 September, Gulf Keystone said total production from the field has surpassed 15 million barrels.

It has also confirmed that it has received its share of the $75m payment to international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which was authorised by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on 7 September.

“As of today, the company’s cash position is $73m, including the recent payment of $15m gross ($12m net to Gulf Keystone) now received for Shaikan crude exports,” the company said in the statement.

On 25 August, Gulf Keystone’s cash and cash equivalents stood at $63.9m, including $32.5m restricted to meet debt service obligations.

In July, at the request of the KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Gulf Keystone started trucking Shaikan oil a distance of 120 kilometres to Fyshkhabour on the Turkish border, for injection into the export pipeline to Ceyhan in Turkey.

Gulf Keystone says it is in the process of transferring all crude deliveries to the export pipeline.

On 7 September, KRG payments of $30m were also approved for both Turkey-based Genel Energy and Norway’s DNO.

The payments make up the first tranche of regular payments to exporting IOCs operating in the autonomous region, according to the KRG, which says it plans to increase payments to the firms over coming months.

Erbil has increased independent oil sales over recent months by diverting crude away from Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (Somo).

This has increased the KRG’s oil revenues and has funded the latest payments to IOCs.

Analysts say the oil companies are owed more than $1bn in total by Erbil.