Iraqi Kurdistan has increased its oil exports to almost 300,000 barrels per day, the semi-autonomous region's natural resource minister said on Thursday, adding he expected them to rise to around 500,000 bpd early next year.

"We are now close to exporting 300,000 bpd through Ceyhan in Turkey," the Kurdistan Regional Government's Ashti Hawrami told a conference in the regional capital Arbil.

"Probably this week it will be that figure."

He added that three more oilfields in the region were due to start production in the next two to three months, and said he saw exports rising to 500,000 bpd in January or February.

In late October, the KRG's pipeline to Ceyhan was pumping 280,000 bpd, according industry sources and Turkish officials.

The KRG has been ramping up its oil exports through Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan since May, despite legal threats from Baghdad that says the sales are illegal. The KRG says they are allowed under Iraqi's constitution. Baghdad has cut the region's budget over the dispute.

Hawrami struck a defiant note at the conference, saying the KRG had already sold around 20 million barrels of oil at prices similar to those achieved by the Iraqi central government's state marketer SOMO.

"We compete with SOMO's price," Hawrami said.

"We have no problems with selling the oil. There is more demand than we are able to supply," he added.

GETTING PAID

Hawrami said 25 to 26 ships had sailed from Ceyhan and that the KRG had already been paid for the oil it has delivered.

"We got paid for that and indeed we got paid for another 10 ships we haven't yet loaded."

As Baghdad has threatened legal action against anyone buying oil from the KRG, the Kurdish tanker sales have often involved a cat-and-mouse game with ship-to-ship transfers, covert deliveries and vessels turning off satellite tanker tracking.

A number of cargoes have gone to Israel, industry sources say and ship-tracking data indicates, while others have sailed to Asia. One 1 million barrel tanker has remained anchored off the coast of Texas for months after Baghdad asked a U.S. court to seize the vessel. The KRG has denied selling oil to Israel.

The KRG has declined to publicly identify any buyers, but Hungary's MOL Group, which has producing assets in Iraqi Kurdistan, said this summer it had taken some of the Kurdish crude for its refinery in Croatia.

London-listed companies such as Genel and Gulf Keystone Petroleum are some of the biggest producers in Iraqi Kurdistan. Gulf Keystone last week delayed the release of its interim management statement to November 13, saying it is holding talks with the KRG. Genel is due to report on the same day. - Reuters