DNO International said on Monday authorities in Kurdistan had assigned minority stakes in three fields that the Norwegian oil exploration company is developing in the Middle Eastern region.

With the completion of these assignments, DNO's 100 percent cost-paying obligations will be reduced to 75 percent for (the) Tawke (field), and to 60 percent for each of Erbil and Duhok, DNO said in a statement.

DNO maintains its 55 percent working interest in the Tawke PSC (production sharing contract), and 40 percent in each of the Erbil and Duhok PSCs, it said.

The company said the Kurdistan Regional Government assigned a 25 percent stake in the Tawke field in northern Iraq to Turkey's Genel Enerji. Third-party stakes in Duhok went to Genel Enerji, while stakes in Erbil went to another private investor.

DNO also said Genel Enerji owns a stake of about 4.8 percent in DNO, bought in the last quarter of 2008.

Genel Enerji is owned by the Cukurova Group, which is among Turkey's largest industrial and commercial conglomerates, and has been working in the Kurdistan region since 2002.

The KRG continues to hold 20 percent stakes in all three PSCs.

DNO said it continued to be the operator for all three fields, and that it should be entitled to recover about $15 million in past costs.

Duhok and Erbil are still in the exploration and appraisal phase, DNO said.

Shares in DNO had risen 5.1 percent to 6.20 crowns by 0718 GMT, outpacing a 2.4 percent rise in the Oslo bourse's main index .OSEBX. (Reporting by Aasa Christine Stoltz, editing by Will Waterman)

Iraq