Iraq has sent an official request to Turkey to restart oil export flows through a pipeline that runs from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, almost seven weeks after its closure, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

Iraq's request to Turkish state energy company BOTAS came after traders buying crude from the Kurdistan region signed contracts with Iraq's state-owned crude marketer SOMO on Tuesday and Wednesday following weeks of discussions, according to one of the sources, and a separate industry source.

Iraq's oil ministry and Turkey's energy ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Turkey halted Iraq's 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

The ICC ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorised exports by the KRG between 2014 and 2018.

Iraq put off asking Turkey to resume flows as it spent weeks resolving various issues with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) surrounding a restart deal.

(Reporting by Rowena Edwards in London and Julia Payne in Brussels; Additional reporting by Can Sezer in Istanbul and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad Editing by Mark Potter, Kirsten Donovan)