The first shipment of Kirkuk crude has been circulating since the resumption of oil pumping last month was sold to Litasco, a trading arm of Russia's oil-producing Lukoil, according to ship tracking data and a shipping document.
According to data from Revitiv Akon, the tanker left Rafa loaded with about 600,000 barrels of Kirkuk oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on Dec. 10 on the way to a refinery belonging to the Russian company in Italy.
Litasco is scheduled to receive two more shipments of Kirkuk oil in December, a local shipping agent said.
Lukoil is one of the most important oil companies operating in Iraq, which produces about four hundred thousand barrels per day from West Qurna -2 oil field.
Iraq resumed the export of Kirkuk crude in November after the new Iraqi government reached a preliminary agreement with the Kurdistan region.
Crude flows were halted a year ago due to a dispute between the central government and the Erbil government.
The US government has called for a resumption of oil pumping to help address the shortage of Iranian crude in the region after Washington imposed new sanctions on Tehran.
Pumping resumed at a rate of about 50 to 60,000 barrels a day.
Last week, Iraq's oil minister said Kirkuk's output was around 400,000 bpd.
Oil Ministry officials said about 100 thousand barrels of them heading to the tank owned by Iraq in the port of Ceyhan, Turkey.