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ERBIL,
Kurdistan-Iraq, -- Iraq announced the discovery
Saturday of oil reserves in the mountainous Kurdish
region of Zakho, close to its border with Turkey.
"We have discovered oil at Zakho, 470 kilometers
(292 miles) north of Baghdad," announced Iraq's
deputy oil minister Motassam Akram.
He said the oil wells were drilled by a Norwegian
company, DNO and added that the actual crude
reserves would be known "soon".
In March, the Kurdish authorities had announced the
signing of a contract with a Canadian company,
Western Oil Sands, to survey the region of Garmain,
120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Sulaimaniyah.
Most of Iraq's crude reserves are in
Shiite-dominated southern regions and are exported
through the two southern terminals. Exports from
Iraq's northern fields around Kirkuk, just south of
Kurdistan, have effectively been shut down by
insurgent attacks.
The self-rule Kurdish region, which groups the
provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Erbil and Dohuk, has a
small number of oil fields.
In 2005, the country lost 6.25 billion dollars in
oil revenues due to sustained insurgent attacks on
its oil infrastructure.
AFP
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