ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - British oil producer Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) and ShaMaran Petroleum announced Thursday that Iraq has begun compensating international oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region for payment shortfalls on previous oil exports, marking a significant step toward resolving longstanding disputes over oil revenues.
Gulf Keystone said the first shipment of additional oil barrels allocated by Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) had been lifted, beginning a process to compensate producers for the difference between payments received for previous exports and their contractual entitlements based on international oil prices.
“The commencement of the top-up payments is a significant positive milestone for the Company and the Kurdistan oil industry,” Gulf Keystone CEO Jon Harris said in a statement.
In a separate statement, ShaMaran confirmed that SOMO had allocated an additional oil cargo to international oil companies under its October 2026 lifting program.
The company said the additional barrels were intended to compensate producers at full international prices under the tripartite interim export agreements and begin settling outstanding payments for oil exported between September and December 2025.
The additional barrels are intended to reconcile previous oil export sales with international prices, allowing participating companies to begin recovering outstanding payments.
“The receipt of full PSC entitlement at international prices for our export sales is aligned with the amended budget law and our contracts,” Harris said, referring to the company's production-sharing contract.
“We welcome the commitment shown by the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Government of Iraq in taking this important step,” he added, saying it “reinforces Kurdistan and Iraq as attractive destinations for international oil industry investment.”
The development marks a step toward resolving payment disputes affecting international oil companies in the Kurdistan Region, where producers have long sought guarantees that their contractual entitlements would be honored.
Neither Gulf Keystone nor ShaMaran disclosed the monetary value of the compensation or specified how much each company expected to receive.
“As the precedent for payment has now been established, we will continue to pursue recovery of the remaining balance of our top-up receivables,” Harris said.
“This maiden top-up payment will boost GKP’s momentum towards development of the Shaikan Field’s large, low-cost reserves and resources base,” he added.
ShaMaran, which holds a 50 percent working interest in the Atrush oil block and an 18 percent interest in the Sarsang block, is among the international companies participating in the interim export arrangements.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline resumed in September 2025 under agreements involving Baghdad, Erbil and international oil companies.
Under the arrangements, producers receive payments in the form of allocated oil cargoes, which are sold through an appointed marketing firm. Additional barrels are intended to cover differences between the initial payments and the companies' full contractual entitlements.
The announcements come a day after Norwegian oil company DNO reported a sharp recovery in production and sales at its Tawke and Peshkabir fields following months of suspended operations caused by the US-Israeli war against Iran.
