Oslo-listed oil and gas operator DNO has restarted oil production at its key foreign asset, the Tawke field in Kurdistan, Iraq, after shutting it down in early April.

The move came after the sudden halt of regional oil deliveries into the Kirkuk–Ceyhan export pipeline, also known as the Iraqi–Turkish pipeline.

Turkey stopped the transportation of an estimated 450,000 barrels per day of Kurdish oil exports on 25 March at the request of Baghdad after an international arbitration court in Paris, France, ruled Turkey had violated a clause of the 1973 pipeline agreement between the two countries.

Iraq was awarded $1.5 billion for the damages it suffered as the result of the breach.

DNO said in a statement that production at Tawke was restarted in July to conduct well integrity tests and synchronise reservoir models.