Top officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, in northern Iraq have agreed to export an average of 250,000 barrels a day in 2013, up from the current 170,000 to 200,000 barrels a day.

The agreement, however, obliged the central government in Baghdad to pay operators in the Kurdistan region the costs of producing the exported oil in accordance with an agreement reached between the two sides last month, the KRG said in a statement posted on its website Monday.

It said that the agreement was the result of thorough discussions held in Baghdad by a KRG delegation headed by Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami and a central government delegation lead by Minister of Finance Rafiee al-Esawi.

Last month, the KRG and the federal government in Baghdad resolved issues relating to oil payments to foreign companies producing crude oil in the region and Kurdish control of oil exports from Kurdistan. According to the agreement, Baghdad would pay the KRG 1 trillion Iraqi dinars ($841.4 billion), of which some IQD650 billion was paid last week, with the remaining IQD350 billion to be paid either by the end of this year or the beginning of 2013, depending on the central government's budgetary procedures.

Last month's agreement came after the KRG suspended exports of nearly 100,000 barrels of oil a day in April, citing a $1.5 billion backlog owed by Baghdad . It restarted them on Aug. 7, in what it said was a "goodwill gesture," but it said flows would be halted if no payments were forthcoming by Aug. 31. The KRG later extended its deadline to Sept. 15.

The KRG said it had exported around 140,000 barrels a day last month and is planning to raise exports to 200,000 barrels a day from the beginning of this month until the end of this year.

The resumption of Kurdistan exports has already raised Iraq 's crude oil exports to 2.6 million barrels a day in September from around 2.5 million barrels a day in August. Iraqi oil officials said that October's oil exports are expected to exceed 2.7 million barrels a day.

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