Pearl Petroleum to raise funds for investment in Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Pearl Petroleum, a consortium that oil and gas operator Dana Gas leads, has announced it will increase funds for its investments in the Kurdistan Region.

The chief executive of Dana Gas, Patrick Allman-Ward, told reporters on Monday that the funding would include a “mix of bank debt, a bond, Exim bank financing as well as contractor and vendor financing,” Reuters reported.

The oil and gas operator also announced a rise in its first-quarter profit from the output in the Kurdistan Region to USD 35 million, with production up six percent from the previous year.

In March, Pearl Petroleum signed a 20-year Gas Sales Agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) as part of a plan to expand its operations in the autonomous Kurdish region.

According to Dana Gas, the deal was meant “to enable production sales of an additional 250 MMscf/day that the Consortium aims to produce by 2021” from the Kor Mor and Chemchemal fields.

To date, Dana Gas has invested over USD 1.6 billion in the Kurdistan Region’s gas and energy sector, producing more than 260 million barrels of oil which the company says has provided “billions of dollars in fuel cost savings and wider economic benefits for the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.”

Dana Gas is an independent gas company headquartered in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, that has been active in Kurdistan since 2007 when it entered into agreements with the KRG to develop its substantial gas resources. 

The oil and gas operator has a 35 percent stake in Pearl Petroleum, a consortium comprised of five oil and gas companies which focus on exploration and production of natural gas and liquids in the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurdistan Region estimates that it has recoverable reserves of at least 45 billion barrels of oil and 5.66 trillion cubic meters of gas.