International oil company (IOC) BP has signed an agreement with the Iraqi government to ramp up production from Kirkuk, one of the region’s biggest oil fields, according to Reuters.
The IOC is set to ramp up production capacity from the field to more than 700,000 barrels per day (bpd), after it was reclaimed by Baghdad from Kurdish forces last October.
BP’s Michael Townsend signed the deal with the Oil Ministry to develop the field that had become a focus of the territorial dispute between Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.
Kirkuk had been generating a production level of around 600,000 bpd but the military operation had seen exports via the Ceyhan pipeline to Turkey reduce to less than half of its usual capacity.
Iraq plans to supply oil from Kirkuk to Iran, via truck, by the end of the month.
