Iraqi Kurdistan Oil Exports Approaching 300,000 bpd

Iraqi Kurdistan has increased its oil exports to almost 300,000 barrels per day, the semi-autonomous region's natural resource minister said on Thursday, adding he expects them to rise to around 500,000 bpd early next year.

"We are now close to exporting 300,000 bpd through Ceyhan in Turkey," the Kurdistan Regional Government's Ashti Hawrami told a conference in the regional capital Arbil.

"Probably this week it will be that figure."

He added that three more oilfields in the region are due to start production in the next two to three months, and said he saw exports rising to 500,000 bpd in January or February.

The KRG has been ramping up its oil exports through Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan since May, despite legal threats from Baghdad that decries the sales as illegal. The KRG says the sales are allowed under Iraqi's constitution. Baghdad has cut the region's budget over the dispute.

(Reporting by Isabel Coles in Arbil, writing by David Sheppard in London; editing by Susan Thomas)