The UAE's Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum have started supplying natural gas to a federal Iraqi power plant, bolstering electricity generation as the US-Iran war disrupts the country's energy sector.
Gas from the Khor Mor field in the Kurdistan region will be supplied to the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity's Kirkuk Taza power station under a one-year agreement for 100 million standard cubic feet a day, the companies said on Tuesday.
Crescent Petroleum is the largest shareholder in Dana Gas. Both companies are based in Sharjah.
The first deliveries mark the project's biggest milestone since the KM250 expansion last October, which increased Khor Mor's production capacity by 50 per cent to 750 million standard cubic feet a day.
“This first delivery of gas … is an important milestone for the companies in their development of gas sector in the Kurdistan region, while also further supporting the growing electricity demand for Iraq as a whole, and contributing to improved services for the people of Iraq,” said Majid Jafar, chief executive of Crescent Petroleum and managing director of the board of Dana Gas.
The start of supplies comes after repeated attacks on energy infrastructure in Iraq's Kurdistan region during the US-Iran conflict. Last month, Dana Gas temporarily suspended operations at Khor Mor because of what it described as “credible security threats”, prompting Baghdad to warn the disruption could cut up to 1,400 megawatts of electricity generation.
“By leveraging the additional capacity created through the KM250 expansion, it lays the foundation for more co-operation on energy within Iraq’s growing market, to strengthen energy security while supporting more reliable electricity services,” said Richard Hall, chief executive of Dana Gas.
Dana Gas chief executive Richard Hall said the additional capacity from the KM250 expansion would “lay the foundation” for further energy co-operation in Iraq, helping to strengthen energy security and improve the reliability of electricity supplies.
The company had also signed a deal with UK-based Levidian for a graphene production site, in a move that could eventually allow the UAE to become a key global producer of the advanced material.
