Dana Gas plans to invest $250 million to expand production in...

The Emirates Energy Company, Dana Gas, said yesterday that a consortium it co-chairs has obtained $250 million in financing from an American development corporation, to finance the expansion of gas production at the Khor Mor plant in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Dana Gas said in a statement that Pearl Petroleum, a consortium it leads with the UAE’s Crescent Petroleum, has received the seven-year funding from the US International Development Finance Corporation.
According to “Reuters”, this is the largest funding for the institution in Iraq ever. The expansion of the Khor Mor gas station was halted last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is now expected to be completed in April 2023 after construction resumed in April of this year.
Dana Gas said, “The total cost of the expansion is $630 million. Under an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, Pearl Petroleum will supply natural gas to local power stations.”
The development of gas fields in Kurdistan in order to provide energy for local industries contributes to reducing the cost of fuel in the region and reducing carbon emissions at the same time.
The central government in Iraq is also seeking to accelerate the development of the gas sector to reduce dependence on gas from neighboring Iran.
Last week, the Iraqi Oil Ministry signed a contract with the French “Total Energies” group to invest in the field of gas, oil and solar energy, worth $27 billion, according to the Iraqi Oil Minister.
Sources in the ministry stated that the contract with the French group is “one of the largest contracts in the Iraqi oil sector”, and includes four axes, three of which are in the investment of gas and oil and the other in the field of solar energy.
The total value of this huge contract amounts to 27 billion dollars, according to what was announced by Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail in a conference yesterday, in which Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of the company, also participated, at the conclusion of the signing ceremony in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
The minister added that “this is the largest investment by a Western company in Iraq, and the challenge now is the implementation of projects,” explaining that “a third of the investment funds will be spent during the next seven years.” Iraq currently produces 16,000 megawatts of electricity, which is much less than its average need, estimated at 24,000 megawatts, and reaches 30,000 in the summer, while its population may double by 2050, which means an increase in its energy consumption, according to the United Nations.
The country experiences frequent power cuts, especially during the scorching summer when temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius. Iraqi officials attribute the reason to the lack of investments and the deterioration of the network with the drop in oil prices, which represents 90 percent of the country’s revenues.