London-listed exploration and production group Gulf Keystone has reached production of 40,000 barrels a day (b/d) at the Shaikan field in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq.

The existing production facilities – PF-1 and PF-2 – are now producing from seven wells, with Shaikan-8 expected to come online during January 2015.

Production reached 40,000 b/d after gradually increasing through December, and on 29 December, a record number of 354 trucks were loaded at PF-1 and PF-2, with nearly 58,000 b/d of crude sent to the Turkish coast for export sales. Sales have increased nearly four-fold since January 2014.

On 24 December, Gulf Keystone spudded a new well – Shaikan-11 – that will be tied to PF-2 through a 11-kilometre flowline already in place.

Gulf Keystone is the operator of the Shaikan block and holds three more production sharing contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan at the Sheikh Adi, Ber Bahr and Akri-Bijeel blocks.

The company’s Shaikan field development plan was approved by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in June 2013 and it is now targeting a capacity of 100,000 b/d during phase one of the development.

Gulf Keystone has a 75 per cent stake in the block, with Hungary’s MOL and US-based Texas Keystone holding respective stakes of 20 per cent and 5 per cent.