Iraq has signed a basic agreement with energy giant British Petroleum (BP) to study the potentials of increasing oil production in fields located in Kirkuk.

"Oil Minister Jabbar Luaibi signed the agreement with BP in the office the state-run North Oil Company," Russia’s Sputnik news agency quoted an official from Iraq’s Oil Ministry as saying.

The official added that the agreement had been signed over the past few weeks after Iraq invited companies to bid for a project to construct a new branch of an oil pipeline from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

The oil fields that BP would study are located in an area disputed between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Sputnik added in its report.

Activities by oil companies in the same area were disrupted in September after the Kurds voted in favor of independence from Baghdad.

The new pipeline would stretch for around 250 kilometers from the city of Baiji in the province of Salaheddin and would span until the Fish-Khabur border area with Turkey before finally reaching the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Reporter’s code: 50101