Iraqi government-owned North Oil Co. and Kurdish Kar Group are cooperating on pumping the oil from two fields that halted operations following the government military action to take it over from Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Kurdistan forces had been there since 2014 when they ousted Islamic State militants. The Bai Hassan and Avana oil fields near Kirkuk have been shut since October 19 th , keeping at least 275,000 bpd offline. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, operated by KAR Group, saw flows fall to 196,000 barrels a day last Thursday—down from 225,000 barrels per day the day before. Normal, non-wartime scenarios peg flow at 600,000 barrels per day. Civilian workers at both fields were reportedly sent home following a build-up of Iraqi military forces around the sites. Oil Ministry engineers worked to replace computers and other critical equipment missing from oil fields. Over the weekend, Iraqi authorities said they increased oil […]