Over the past 18 months Norway’s DNO has often spoken of its intention to accelerate development of Tawke, its main Kurdish license. But its drilling programs have failed to match the rhetoric, until now. Improved confidence in payment reliability from the KRG has prompted DNO to invest in a third drilling rig at Tawke in a bid to boost output from current levels of 111,000 b/d.

Allied with higher oil prices, regular payments from the KRG helped DNO’s overall revenues grow 84% quarter-on-quarter to $76.7mn for Q1. The firm also swung from a $31.2mn loss in Q4 2016 to record a $14.7mn profit, according to its Q1 results released 4 May. (CONTINUED - 776 WORDS)