International oil firms load first Kurdish exports from Turkey's Ceyhan

OSLO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - International oil companies in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region have loaded their first export cargo from Turkey's Ceyhan terminal, Gulf Keystone Petroleum said on Monday.

Gulf Keystone Petroleum said in a statement it expects payment for its share of the first cargo within 30 days and anticipates the second lifting at the end of November.

Its London-listed shares were up 3.6% by 0840 GMT.

After a two-and-a-half year hiatus, Iraq resumed oil exports from Kurdistan to Ceyhan via pipeline in late September under an interim deal that compensates producers with a share of their crude deliveries to Iraqi national company SOMO.

The restart deal involves eight IOCs, including Shamaran Petroleum and U.S.-based HKN Energy and Hunt Oil.

Norway's DNO, Kurdistan's largest producer, did not join and continues to sell oil to local traders for cash.

Iraq plans to load 250,000 barrels per day of Kirkuk crude from Ceyhan in November across 12 cargoes, a loading programme seen by Reuters shows, an 86% increase from the previous month (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Gulf Keystone Petroleum

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