Pearl Petroleum Signs New Kurdistan Gas Deal
Pearl Petroleum Company, a consortium led by Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas, February 19 signed a new 20-year gas sales agreement (GSA) with the Kurdistan Regional Government, it said March 6.
The agreement will enable production and sales of an additional 250mn ft3/day that Pearl aims to produce by 2021 as part of expansion plans in the Kurdistan, Pearl added.
Pearl is undertaking a $700mn expansion at the Khor Mor plant that will include the addition of two new production trains, as well as drilling of new wells with plans to raise production from the current 400mn ft3/d to reach 650mn ft3/d by 2021 based on this latest agreement, and then to 900mn ft3/d beyond that by 2022.
Last year, Dana announced a 30% increase in gas output at the Khor Mor field from debottlenecking throughput at the Khor Mor plant.
The Kurdistan Gas Project was established in 2007 as Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum entered into agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government for certain exclusive rights to appraise, develop, produce, market, and sell petroleum from the Khor Mor and Chemchemal fields in Kurdistan. Production from the newly built plant in Khor Mor began just 15 months later, in October 2008. In 2009, Pearl Petroleum was formed as a consortium with Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum as shareholders, and with OMV, MOL, and RWE joining the consortium subsequently with a 10% share each.
The Kurdistan Gas Project supplies natural gas from the Khor Mor field by pipeline to power plants in Bazian, Chemchemal and Erbil, as well as LPG and condensate, which are sold in the local markets.
Total investment in the Kurdistan Gas Project to date exceeds $1.6bn, with total cumulative production of over 260 million barrels of oil equivalent, Pearl said.