ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Wednesday commended the US-based HKN Energy’s role in finalizing the recent tripartite agreement to resume oil exports from the Kurdistan Region.

Sudani received representatives of the American oil company on Wednesday, with the premier praising “HKN's role in completing the recent agreement to export oil from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and facilitating the reopening of the Iraq-Turkey pipeline,” according to a statement from his office.

“This achievement represents an important turning point for Iraq and all Iraqis,” the premier added.

Exports of crude oil from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline resumed in late September after a 30-month halt, following the signing of a breakthrough agreement between Erbil, Baghdad, and international oil companies operating in the Region.

The Kurdistan Region’s oil exports through Turkey’s Ceyhan port had been halted since March 2023, when a Paris-based arbitration court ruled that Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to start selling oil independently in 2014, awarding the case to Baghdad.

Sudani also sponsored the signing of a Heads of Agreement (HOA) on Wednesday between the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and the US-based oil company ExxonMobil.

The premier asserted that the agreement “represents an important step for the future of Iraq’s oil sector and for strengthening economic relations with the United States,” and “affirmed that Iraq’s doors are open to all major international companies wishing to contribute to the development of the oil sector.”

In March, Iraq’s oil ministry announced that it plans to increase oil production to six million barrels per day between 2028 and 2029.

Iraq’s current production capacity sits at around 4 million barrels per day according to an agreement with OPEC+, of which nearly 700,000 barrels are used domestically.

Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Region exports around 185,000 barrels of oil per day through the Turkey-Iraq pipeline following its resumption.

Myles Caggins, spokesperson for the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR), told The New Region that the Region’s exports are expected to increase to approximately 230,000 oil barrels per day.

Iraq has 145 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, according to the World Bank.