OREANDA-NEWS.   DNO International ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas operator, announced that production from the Tawke field in the Kurdistan region of Iraq reached 120,021 barrels of oil per day in May, the first time average monthly production has exceeded 100,000 barrel per day. May production was split 60-40 between local sales and deliveries to the export pipeline at Fish Khabur.

Ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held at 10:00 CET in Oslo, the Company also announced that production from the Tawke field passed the 75 million barrels cumulative mark on 31 May.

Plans to increase Tawke deliverability to 200,000 barrels per day by yearend 2014 continue on schedule. As part of that expansion program, production testing has commenced on Tawke-26, the first of two recently completed Tawke horizontal wells, with Tawke-24 to follow. A third horizontal well, Tawke-25, is drilling ahead at 1,873 metres.

Elsewhere in Kurdistan, sales of natural gas from the Summail field to the Dohuk power plant commenced in late May and currently average 60 million cubic feet per day from the first well, some 20 percent ahead of plan. Sales will climb as a second well is put on production in June, followed by a third well later this summer.

"We are focused like a laser on scale and speed of delivery, notwithstanding stretch targets, across our portfolio of assets," said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO International's Executive Chairman.

In the Sultanate of Oman, the West Bukha-5 well has been returned to service following an extensive workover, and tested 2,600 barrels per day of oil and liquids and 10 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, increasing Block 8 deliveries.

In the Republic of Yemen, at 7,804 barrels per day, gross oil production in May from Blocks 32, 43 and 53 was up some 20 percent from the first quarter 2014 figure, although security conditions remain challenging and continue to impact certain drilling and production operations.