ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- In an elaborately choreographed ceremony broadcast live on television, the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan began pumping oil from Kurdish-controlled oil fields in northern Iraq through a pipeline to neighboring Turkey. A worker at the oil refinery near the village of Taq Taq in the province of Irbil. It is the first time Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region has officially exported oil out of the country. For years, the central Iraqi government in Baghdad has been at odds with the Kurds, arguing they do not have the right to exploit oil in territory under Kurdish control. Kurdish officials have ignored Baghdad's warnings, and signed dozens of agreements with small foreign oil companies.
@highlight
First time Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region has officially exported oil
@highlight
Turkish company says only 40,000 barrels of oil would be exported a day
@highlight
Could increase to as many as 450,000 barrels a day
@highlight
Iraqi government will get the bulk of the earnings from Kurdish exports
That is a fraction of the 1.8 million barrels a day currently being exported by @placeholder.
In the past, the Turkish government has vehemently opposed any move by the Iraqi Kurds to develop oil resources, because of Turkish fears that the oil revenues would allow the @placeholder to establish an independent state.