Ahead of the Company's Annual General Meeting, Gulf Keystone, the operator of the Shaikan field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, is providing an operational update.

The Company continues to produce at stable rates from both Shaikan production facilities (PF-1 and PF-2). Following debottlenecking work performed on both facilities, well and plant capacity exists for production rates in excess of 43,000 barrels of oil per day ('bopd'). However, production guidance below has been adjusted to take into account potential offtake and market constraints.

The rolling production average from the Shaikan field for the past two months has been 38,000 bopd and a new daily production record of 44,600 bopd was established on 21 June 2015. Cumulative production from the field has now surpassed 13 million barrels of oil.

It is the Directors' current expectation that production will remain within the range of 36,000-40,000 bopd between now and the year end, subject to offtake.

Due to the previously announced five week suspension of production operations at the end of Q1 2015, caused by adverse market conditions, the daily production average for the year is expected to be between 30,000 and 34,000 bopd.

Tags: Gulf Keystone Petroleum