KRG: DNO Blames Ministry Shake-Up For Tawke Slowdown

30 Jul 2021 Issue: 64 / 30 By: Jamie Ingram

Efforts to modernize the MNR are a welcome development, but Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government can ill afford this to come at the expense of day-to-day operations. DNO says slow bureaucracy has delayed planned output gains.

Output from Tawke, the largest foreign-operated block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq dipped slightly in Q2 this year. The latest update from Tawke operator DNO (75%op) attributes the small fall to “extended delays” from Kurdistan’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) in approving its 2021 Tawke field work program and budget.

“We are eager to invest and produce more oil in Kurdistan,” says DNO’s executive chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani in the firm’s 29 July earnings release. But the ongoing reorganization of the MNR under Kamal Atroshi has held up approval of the firm’s 2021 work program. As a result, “the delays are expected to defer $50mn in 2021 DNO net spending in Kurdistan which could have generated up to 15,000 b/d gross production across DNO’s three operated fields (Tawke, Peshkabir and Baeshiqa) going into 2022,” says DNO. (CONTINUED - 926 WORDS)