May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil exports from the Tawke and Taq-Taq fields in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq will start next month, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Exports from the Tawke field will commence June 1 at a rate of 60,000 barrels a day, once it has been linked with Iraq’s main export pipeline to Turkey, Ashti Hawrami, Kurdistan’s minister for natural resources, said in a statement on the KRG’s Web site. Exports from Taq-Taq will start at a rate of 40,000 barrels a day, according to the statement.

Iraq’s central government agreed in November that the two oilfields in the autonomous region of northern Iraq could be linked with the pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Even so, Iraq has not yet granted export licenses to the two companies that operate the fields, DNO International ASA and Addax Petroleum Corp., who signed agreements directly with the KRG.

The crude will be marketed by Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization and “revenue will be deposited to the federal Iraq account for the benefit of all Iraqi people,” Hawrami said.

Shares of DNO, which operates Tawke, closed 19 percent higher at 7.37 kroner in Oslo, the biggest increase since Nov. 28. The stock surged as much 34 percent earlier in the day.

DNO has not received any notification from the KRG concerning commencement of crude oil exports, it said in a stock exchange statement. Addax is also still awaiting official notice, spokeswoman Marie-Gabrielle Cajoly said by e-mail. Asim Jihad, Iraq’s oil ministry spokesman in Baghdad, couldn’t be reached by phone for comment.

Rising Exports

Combined exports from the two fields will eventually reach 250,000 barrels a day once the pipeline link with the Taq-Taq field is completed, according to the statement.

Taq-Taq is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Kirkuk and 55 kilometers southwest of the Kurdish capital Erbil. Oil from that field will initially be sent to the Iraq-Turkey pipeline by truck, until a direct link is laid.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain Al-Shahristani said on May 1 that full approval to export from the two fields had not yet been given to the KRG. While Iraq had agreed that the two sites should be connected to the export pipeline, the Baghdad government was still waiting for the KRG to complete the connection, Shahristani said.

Kurdistan and the administration in Baghdad are disputing a number of territorial and revenue-sharing issues.

Shares in Geneva-based Addax Petroleum rose 13 percent to C$38.09 each at 12:07 p.m. in Toronto.

To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.netCaroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 8, 2009 12:14 EDT