A collection of rocket assaults on a gasfield in northern Iraq has despatched US contractors to work on packing its enlargement, settling hopes of the Kurdish subject to extend its income and supply a smaller different to Russian fuel. .
A challenge to develop the Khor Mor subject run by the Pearl Consortium, which is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi’s Dana Gas and its associate Crescent Petroleum, was suspended in late June after three rocket assaults.
Industry and Kurdish authorities sources mentioned staff of Texan firm Xtran Corp returned final month to renew work, however on July 25, two extra rockets struck the location, leaving the corporate once more with no return date. was pressured to go away.
Khor Mor is considered one of Iraq’s largest fuel fields and the enlargement plan goals to double manufacturing within the subject in determined want of extra fuel to generate electrical energy and finish nearly each day energy blackouts.
Sources mentioned no severe harm was brought on by the assaults and present operations haven’t been disrupted, however the extension has been suspended until safety is ensured within the space.
The enlargement challenge is partly funded by way of a $250 million financing settlement with the US International Development Finance Corporation.
Extran is the third contractor because the June 21 assaults focusing on the world, with two Turkish sub-contractors, Havtec and Biltec, having already halted work.
Dana Gas declined to remark. Exterran, Havatek and Biltek didn’t reply to requests for remark.
unsure future
Last yr, the Kurdish authorities signed a contract with home power firm KAR Group to construct a pipeline working parallel to an present pipeline from Khor Mor by way of the regional capital Erbil to the town of Dohuk, near the Turkish border.
The delay might result in heavy fines for the debt-ridden Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the halt of Kurdish fuel export schemes.
If the infrastructure just isn’t prepared by May 2023, the Kurdish authorities should pay Dana Gas $40 million a month till it’s prepared, the federal government supply mentioned.
“There is more reputational damage because the additional safety hazards add another layer of risk that can affect the cost of capital and insurance”, mentioned Ali Al-Safar, program supervisor for Middle East and North Africa on the International Energy Agency.
KRG didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Dana Gas has rights to use Iraq’s two largest fuel fields, Khor Mor and Kemkemal, which produce about 450 million cubic toes of fuel a day. It plans to greater than double manufacturing to 1 billion cubic toes per day over the following few years, sufficient to satisfy home wants.
Government and business sources mentioned that with 16 trillion cubic toes of confirmed reserves, manufacturing might doubtlessly improve to 1.5 billion cubic toes per day, leaving a big quantity for export to Turkey and Europe.
According to 1 business supply, Dana fuel provides about 80% of the area’s fuel feedstock.
However, the area’s fuel export plan might jeopardize Iran’s place as a serious provider of fuel to Iraq and Turkey at a time when its financial system nonetheless grapples with worldwide sanctions.
In March, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) fired a dozen ballistic missiles at Erbil in an assault that appeared to focus on Turkey and the area’s plans to produce fuel to Europe, officers mentioned.
Although no group has claimed duty for the 5 assaults on Khor Mor since June, Kurdish officers, diplomats, business sources and power specialists mentioned they consider they have been carried out by Iranian-backed militias. was.
Iran’s overseas ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.
However, two diplomats based mostly in Iraq mentioned they believed that rivalry throughout the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the get together that controls the land the place the area is positioned, has pressured one facet out of the enlargement challenge. Being ousted led to vengeance.
A PUK official, who spoke on situation of anonymity, dismissed this model of occasions.
no man’s land
The Khor Mor space is near a no man’s land between Iraqi forces, Kurdish forces and Shia militias, from the place the primary three rocket assaults have been launched.
Due to the dearth of settlement on territorial management, there are areas the place neither Iraqi forces nor Kurdish forces can enter, leaving a safety void the place militias are lively.
But the final two assaults with massive rockets got here from areas near the town of Kirkuk, which is below the management of the federal authorities.
“Khor Mor has great potential and can help the Kurds,” the Kurdish official mentioned. “We are attacked from all sides. The future may be very unsure.”
The setback to the fuel scheme comes at a time when the oil sector, the sector’s monetary lifeline, can also be in hassle.
Oil reserves are depleting greater than twice the worldwide common and a federal Supreme Court ruling in February deemed the authorized basis of the Kurdistan area’s oil and fuel sector unconstitutional, forcing some overseas oil corporations to give up.
Industry and authorities sources mentioned outsiders have stopped work for safety causes fairly than energy.
Further delays in funding within the area will weigh closely on the KRG, which is already dealing with an financial disaster within the struggling area inside unstable Iraq.
According to a authorities official, the KRG’s debt is at present about $38 billion, and MP Karwan Ghazne, who’s a member of the area’s oil and fuel committee, mentioned oil exports make up 85% of Iraqi Kurdistan’s finances.
Delays in fee of public sector salaries, poor public providers and corruption have led to frequent violent protests towards the political events working the sector over the previous two years.
Macroeconomic hardship amongst younger Kurds was additionally one of many principal components behind the migrant disaster on the Belarus-EU border that started in 2021.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
