Pearl Petroleum, the consortium led by Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum of the UAE, has signed a $250 million financing agreement with the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to support gas expansion works currently underway at the Khor Mor gas plant in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.

DFC, the development finance arm of the US government, will support an increase in gas production capacity by 50 per cent to 690 million standard cu ft (scf) per day to meet rising demand for clean natural gas for electricity generation and industry in Kurdistan. The total project cost is $630 million and the remaining financing has already been secured through a regional bank facility and the EPC contractor.

The KM-250 project is the first stage of a two-train expansion project at Khor Mor that aims to boost total production capacity to approach 1 billion scf/day.

Work resumed in April 2021 after onsite construction was halted last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is currently on track for completion by April 2023.

The total investment by Pearl Petroleum at Khor Mor to date exceeds $2.1 billion with total cumulative production of over 341 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in natural gas and liquids.

The uninterrupted supply of gas to power plants in Erbil, Chemchemal and Bazian has resulted in significant fuel cost savings and economic benefits for the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a whole.

Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum and Board Managing Director of Dana Gas, commented: "Despite the global challenges presented by the pandemic, we have continued to maintain our record of uninterrupted operations and even managed to grow production."