Gulf Keystone Petroleum said it received payments for exports from the Kurdish government in Iraq, which it said would boost its corporate sustainability.

The company, which has headquarters in London, said it received a net payment of $12 million for its November invoice for crude oil exported from the Shaikan oil field in the Kurdish north of Iraq. Since December 2014, the company said it's received $86 million in payments for exports.

Chief Executive Officer Jon Ferrier said payments support operations, where proven reserve increases have led to a sustainable level of production.

"We continue to drive the company forward with three principal strategic objectives: safe and reliable operations, commercial sustainability of the business achieved through regular monthly payments and addressing of the arrears, and constructive relationships with our host government, shareholders and bondholders," he said in a statement.

Third-party assessments show proved reserves in the Shaikan reserve area at between 198 million to 306 million barrels, 55 percent more than originally estimated. Proved plus probable reserves increased by 114 percent to as much as 639 million barrels.

In early 2015, the company suspended crude oil exports through Turkey and directed sales to the local market because of a lack of payment from the Kurdish government. Kurdish Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani told investors at a London energy conference his government was expected to run a budget deficit of about $12.4 million, better than 2014, but it's "still very large."

Talabani said national security concerns and budgetary spats with the federal government in Baghdad put strains on government coffers even when oil was priced about $100 per barrel. With those strains continuing, he said "things are pretty far from being all right at the moment."

Gazprom reviews gas line to Europe in midst of Russian, Turkish tensions
Moscow (UPI) Dec 2, 2015 -Amid frosty relations between Moscow and Ankara, Russian energy company Gazprom said it was reviewing the status of a pipeline through the Baltic Sea.

Officials with Gazprom hosted their counterparts from Austrian energy company OMV to discuss bilateral affairs.

"The meeting addressed the status of the Nord Stream II project as well as possibilities of an asset swap and oil supplies to OMV from the Gazprom group portfolio," Gazprom said in a statement.

Both sides held similar meetings in Vienna in October. OMV had no statement on the latest gathering in Moscow.

Gazprom aims to double the capacity of the existing twin Nord Stream project running through the Baltic Sea to the German coast. Two more lines would be added to the existing network, bringing the net aggregate annual capacity to 1.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Nord Stream is one of Gazprom's options to avoid geopolitical sensitive territory in Ukraine, through which a majority of its gas supplies reach Europe. Turkish Stream would carry gas through Turkey and onto markets in southern Europe.

Ties between Turkey and Russia were strained when a Russian fighter plane was downed by a Turkish military jet near the border with Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said from the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris this week the Kremlin considered it a "criminal action."

"It was a huge mistake," he added.

Turkish Stream is a scaled-back version of South Stream, a broader pipeline network proposed by Gazprom.

Russian supplies Europe with about a quarter of its gas, though European officials this year ruled each member state should have access to "at least three different sources of gas."

Members of the European Union are slated to raise the Nord Stream issue during a mid-December meeting in Brussels.