Genel Energy starts returning staff to northern Iraq

LONDON - Reuters

Oil producer Genel Energy has started returning staff to its non-producing sites in Iraqi Kurdistan as the security situation in the region has improved, the company has said.

Production at the oil firm’s key Taq Taq and Tawke fields remained uninterrupted and has risen to an average of around 234,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) since the start of September, stated the company, which is partially owned by Turkish Çukurova Holding Chairman Mehmet Emin Karamehmet.

Piped exports from the two fields reached an average of 182,000 bpd since the start of the month, helped by upgrade work on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)-Turkey pipeline, the company added.

KRG officials have been insisting the oil production at the region remains unaffected despite an incursion by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants along the autonomous region’s border. Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil production is expected to rise to 400,000 bpd in 2014 from 250,000 bpd, according to Tony Hayward, chief executive of Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy, the region’s largest producer.