Dana receives payout from KRG after court ruling

Dana Gas and its partners, Crescent Petroleum and Pearl Petroleum, have each received US$8 million from the KRG, according to company sources.

Sharjah-based Dana Gas has received payment from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq following a UK court order last year.

Dana Gas and its partners through the company, Pearl Petroleum, have received US$24 million from the KRG, according to company sources.

The partners include Crescent Petroleum, Austria’s OMV, MOL of Hungary and Germany’s RWE.

This follows a London High Court ruling in November that gave the region’s government two weeks to pay $100m in arrears to the UAE company and its partners for the development of hydrocarbon assets in the region.

In January, the Dana Gas chief executive, Patrick Allman-Ward, said that the company would not make further investments in the region until payment disputes were settled.

Dana Gas’s overdue payments from the KRG and Egypt total about $2 billion.

The KRG said yesterday in a report from its ministry of natural resources that it had allocated $70.9m, or 23 per cent of its oil revenue in February, to producers.

While this is a welcome sign that indicates regular payments, the KRG’s revenue was slashed in half because of lower exports after an attack on the export pipeline near Urfa in Turkey.

Oil sales revenue fell to $303.9m last month from $650m in January, reflecting the drop to 350,000 barrels per day from over 600,000 bpd.

Dana’s shares rose by 1.8 per cent to Dh0.54 yesterday.

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