ANKARA (Reuters) - Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Monday Turkey will explore for oil in the Qandil region of Iraq and that a move towards disarmament by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) should pave the way for this to happen.

Yildiz told reporters Turkey owns blocks it wants to explore in the foothills of the Qandil mountains, a remote corner of Kurdish-run northern Iraq dominated by the PKK, which is negotiating a peace process with Turkish authorities to end a 30-year insurgency inside Turkey.

(Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Daren Butler)