DNO is looking at exporting oil from Kurdistan region of Iraq via Syria

OSLO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Norway's DNO DNO.OL, the largest oil producer in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, said on Thursday it was looking at a possibility to export oil via Syria, with the aim of selling at a higher price than at the local market.

"There are possibilities now that have opened up for movements of oil to the Mediterranean through Syria, which was previously closed due to the civil war there... We are looking at those possibilities," DNO's Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani told a call with investors and analysts.

DNO currently sells crude from its Tawke and Peshkabir fields into the local market at prices which averaged $38.5 per barrel in the third quarter. It was up from $31.2 a year ago, but still well below international benchmarks.

"We continue to work hard to get our oil back into international markets or connect it to international prices in some manner," Mossavar-Rahmani said.

DNO said on Thursday it planned to step up drilling activity to boost output from the two fields, which produced a combined 77,621 barrels of oil per day on a gross basis in the quarter.

"A lot of the southern Iraqi oil is now moving up by trucks to the pipelines of Turkey, but also to Syria for export," Mossavar-Rahmani said. "So we are actively look at how else we can move our oil."

In July, the United States backed a proposal to revive the crude oil pipeline from northern Iraq to Syria's Mediterranean coast, but it can take years and billions of dollars of investments to put in operation, sources familiar with the project have told Reuters.