The Kurdistan region of northern Iraq has increased oil exports by 60 per cent over the past four months to an average of 300,000 barrels a day (b/d) in the first week of November, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Daily flow rates through the pipeline to the port of Ceyhan, Turkey, have risen from an average of 185,000 b/d in August.

Erbil started selling crude independently to the international market in May this year amid a dispute with the Baghdad government, with the KRG claiming it has not been receiving its agreed share of budget revenues.

The regional government said it is on target to reach exports of 400,000 b/d by the end of 2014 and 500,000 b/d by the end of the first quarter of 2015.

“The KRG remains on track to meet its production target of 1 million b/d by end 2015/early 2016”, the government’s Natural Resources Ministry said in a statement.

Since January 2014, 34.5 million barrels of oil have been exported from Iraqi Kurdistan – 21.5 million barrel through the Ceyhan pipeline and the remainder in trucks to Mersin, Turkey.

The total value of these exports is $2.87bn, including $2.1bn in cash and $775m in swaps for refined products such as kerosene and diesel. This indicates an average price of about $81 a barrel.