Iraq’s oil minister said he’s hoping crude oil exports from the country’s northern Kurdistan region will restart in two days after it was halted almost two years ago following a payments dispute.

Oil prices slipped in early trade on Monday, extending losses from last week, on the prospect of a resumption of exports from Kurdistan's oilfields, while investors awaited clarity on talks to end Russia's war on Ukraine.

The Oil Ministry contacted the Turkish side for information about the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline to resume Iraqi Kurdistan's oil exports.

The president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region signaled the likely resumption of oil exports next month, the latest optimism that an almost two-year shutdown that cost the nation some $19 billion in lost revenue could soon be over.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is piling pressure on Iraq to allow Kurdish oil exports to restart or face sanctions alongside Iran, eight sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Iraq’s oil ministry has announced the resumption of oil exports from northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region

Kurdistan is set to resume oil exports by the end of March following a two-year halt due to a dispute with the Iraqi government.

Oil prices slipped in Asia on Monday, extending losses from last week, on the prospect of a resumption of exports from Kurdistan's oilfields, while investors awaited clarity on talks to resolve Russia's war on Ukraine.

Iraq will receive around 185,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan after exports resume via a pipeline to Turkey, a deputy Iraqi oil minister told the state-run Iraqi News Agency on Sunday without providing a time frame.