Dana Gas resumes production at Khor Mor field in Iraq’s Kurdish region

Production was temporarily suspended after a liquid storage tank at the gasfield was struck by a suspected drone on Thursday

Khor Mor gas processing plant in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Photo: Crescent Petroleum

Dana Gas, one of the largest private natural gas companies in the Middle East, has resumed production operations at the Khor Mor gasfield in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Production was temporarily suspended after a liquid storage tank at the field was struck by a suspected drone on January 25, Dana Gas said in a statement on Friday to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded. No one was injured.

Khor Mor is one of the major operating fields in the Sulaymaniyah region of Kurdistan.

In 2007, Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum signed an agreement with the Kurdistan regional government to appraise, develop, produce, market and sell hydrocarbons from Khor Mor and the nearby Chemchemal field.

Production started in 2008, sending gas to power stations in the cities of Chemchemal, Bazian and Erbil.

The Khor Mor processing plant produces natural gas liquids and liquefied petroleum gas, which are sold to the Kurdistan regional government and local traders, according to the Dana Gas website.

Initially, the Khor Mor plant produced around 300 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d). Following several process improvements, production capacity was boosted by about 60 per cent from 305 MMscf/d in 2018 to 500 MMscf/d at the end of 2022.

The Khor Mor gasfield was attacked in 2023 and 2022 with no damage or casualties.

Set up in 2005, Dana Gas also has exploration and production assets in Egypt and the UAE.

The company's overall production in the first half of 2023 averaged 59,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day, a 2 per cent decrease as compared with the same period during the previous year.

Last year, it named former EnQuest executive Richard Hall as its chief executive, replacing Patrick Allman-Ward, who will stay on as an adviser to the board of Dana Gas.