Iraq is planning to start exporting oil from Kirkuk to Iran by before the end of January, according to statement made by Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi.

Speaking to reporters in Baghdad he said his ministry was planning to truck around 30,000 barrels a day (b/d) of crude to Iran’s Kermanshah refinery.

The latest statement from Al-Luaibi comes a month after a swap agreement was announced by the two countries to allow a resumption of oil exports from Kirkuk.

Under the terms of the deal announced in December up to 60,000 b/d of crude produced from Kirkuk will be swapped for Iranian oil that will be delivered to southern Iraq.

Kirkuk is a disputed region in Iraq’s north.

Exports from the north have been disrupted over recent months due to a dispute between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over a range of issues, including a referendum on independence for the Iraq’s Kurdish region that held by the KRG on 25 September 2017.

Iraqi forces took control of the Kirkuk region in mid-October.

The KRG had controlled oil-rich Kirkuk after the Iraqi army fled the region in June 2014 as following the success of Islamic State forces, which had secured control of nearby Tikrit.

Production from the disputed territory of Kirkuk stands at around 80,000 b/d. This is currently being shipped by truck to local power stations and refineries.

Kirkuk crude sales to other countries have been halted since Iraqi forces took back control of the fields from the Kurds.

Several pipelines are being planned to help Baghdad export oil from Kirkuk.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry has invited local and international contractors to submit Expression of Interest (EOI) letters by 24 January for extending the oil export pipeline from the oil fields of Kirkuk to the Iraqi-Turkish border.

The project is to extend the pipeline, side-by-side with the old strategic pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Iraq and Iran are also planning to build a pipeline to carry the oil from Kirkuk to avoid having to truck the crude, Luaibi said last month.

READ MORE: Iraq invites EOIs for Kirkuk-Turkish border pipeline extension