PM Barzani 'delighted' with new major Kurdistan Region gas agreement
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Wednesday publicly welcomed a newly-announced contract signed by UAE-based firm Dana Gas to finance the expansion of a major gas plant, remarking that he was "delighted" with the agreement.
Dana Gas has just signed a financing agreement worth $250 million with the American International Development Finance Corporation to contribute to financing the expansion at the Khor Mor gas field in the Kurdistan Region's Chamchamal.
The 7-year financing provided by the Corporation will contribute to increasing the production capacity of the Khor Mor plant by 50 percent to 690 million cubic feet of gas per day, in order to meet the increasing demand for clean natural gas to generate electricity in the region.
“This will increase our production of clean, cheap electricity; and create many jobs here in Kurdistan so we can build a better future for our homeland,” Prime Minister Barzani added.
I am delighted to hear that @DFCgov's agreement with Dana Gas has secured $250m to expand the KRI’s Khor Mor gas plant.
— Masrour Barzani پابەندین# (@masrour_barzani) September 8, 2021
This will increase our production of clean, cheap electricity; and create many jobs here in Kurdistan so we can build a better future for our homeland.
The "Khor-Mor 250" project is the first phase of the expansion project at the facility that includes the addition of two gas production lines and aims to raise the total gas production to nearly one billion cubic feet per day.
Construction on the project resumed last April after work was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Current timelines have the work expected to be completed and production to go online in April 2023.
To date, Pearl Petroleum's total investment in the Khor Mor facilities exceeds $2.1 billion, according to the company, with cumulative production of more than 341 million barrels of oil equivalent of gas and petroleum liquids.
The continuous supply of gas to power plants in Erbil, Chamchamal, and Bazian have resulted in significant fuel cost savings and significant economic benefits for the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a whole.
Through the gas produced from the project, more than 42 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions were avoided, as a result of replacing liquid fuel (diesel) with natural gas in electricity generation, which contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution in the Kurdistan Region.
Between 2018 and 2021, the Khor Mor Gas Processing Plant witnessed an increase in production by 45 percent as a result of the increased efficiency of the plant, raising the total production to 106,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day,
Dana Gas says that the project is now the largest producer of gas from the private sector in Iraq.