Norwegian oil company DNO has confirmed it has received its share of the $75m payment to international oil companies (IOCs) operating in Iraqi Kurdistan, which was authorised by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on 7 September.

In a statement released on 9 September, DNO confirmed it had received $30m from the KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources for exports from its Tawke oil field.

A payment of $30m has also been approved for Turkey-based Genel Energy, as well as a payment of $15m for London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum.

All payments are due to be completed by 14 September.

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.

Kurdistan 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.