U.S. oil company Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) on Feb. 19 said it had resumed drilling operations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI).

“Chevron can confirm that it has resumed its activities in the KRI and we have restarted drilling operations at our Sarta 3 well,” Sally Jones, Chevron’s spokeswoman, said in a statement.

The company had temporarily suspended operations in the region in October after a controversial independence referendum sparked tensions between Baghdad and the semiautonomous area’s government.

Before that, Chevron in September had drilled an oil well at its Sarta block in Iraqi Kurdistan after a two-year gap, as its confidence in the area was stabilizing despite an international row over the region’s independence referendum plan.