Kurdistan’s Khor Mor Gas Expansion Back On Track

19 May 2023 Issue: 66 / 20 By: Yesar Al-Maleki

The operators of the Khor Mor gas field have provided Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government with some rare good news. Work is restarting on the field’s 250mn cfd expansion project, with a 2Q 2024 target for completion.

As the Ceyhan oil pipeline stoppage creeps towards the two-month mark, Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil sector is on its knees with most IOCs having been forced to shut in their production (MEES, 28 April). But amid this bleak situation, UAE firm Dana Gas says that an improved security situation has enabled it and its partners in the Pearl Consortium (Dana Gas 35%, Crescent Petroleum 35%, OMV 10%, Mol 10%, RWE 10%) to restart expansion work at their 500mn cfd Khor Mor gas field (see map, MEES, 19 May).

Khor Mor is the largest producing non-associated gas field in Iraq and it provides crucial gas feedstock to Kurdistan’s power plants. Work on the 250mn cfd expansion project was restarted in April 2021 following a Covid-19 hiatus, with an April 2023 target date for completion (MEES, 30 April 2021). But work was again suspended last June amid a series of rocket attacks seemingly targeting the field’s facilities, with force majeure declared (MEES, 1 July 2022). (CONTINUED - 736 WORDS)