Rockets shot at Iraqi Kurdistan’s Khor Mor gas field

At least two rockets were fired toward the Khor Mor gas field in the Sulaymaniyah province in the Iraqi Kurdistan region late on Wednesday night, 30 August, without any casualties, local officials and the natural resources ministry of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said.

The Khor Mor gas field, located in the southwest of Sulaimaniyah, approximately 50 km southeast of Kirkuk province, is being developed by the UAE's Dana Gas company and produces natural gas for almost 80 per cent of the Kurdistan region's power plants. 

"Two Katyusha rockets fired from Tuz Khurmatu district landed in the Khor Mor field approximately near a new site plant now being developed," an official source told The New Arab on condition of secrecy because he was not allowed to speak for the media. "No casualties are reported."

"Tonight at about 9:30 PM, Khor Mor field was attacked by several rockets; fortunately, there were no casualties or material damages," the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources said in a statement. 

Rocket launcher was found in Tuz Khurmatu that targeted the Kormor gas field last night in Chamchamal district of Sulaymaniyah, northern #Iraq. pic.twitter.com/xxpb1o6QUg

— Tammuz Intel (@Tammuz_Intel) August 31, 2023

It clarified that officials in the ministry, in cooperation with the  security agencies  and Dana Gas officials, "are monitoring the situation to prevent any impact on the production of gas and electricity." 

Last year, the gas field was targeted several times with Katyusha rockets, but no casualties were reported. Tuz Khurmatu district, in Saladin Governorate, is 55 miles south of Kirkuk. Iraq's para-military and pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have big military camps in the Tuz Khurmatu district.

In September 2021, Dana Gas announced that it had secured US$250 million in financing from the US International Development Finance Corporation to fund an expansion of gas production at the Khor Mor plant.  

A well-informed source close to the Khor Mor gas field operations told TNA on anonymity that US oil and gas company Exterran Corp is fulfilling the expansion project. 

In April 2022, several Katyusha rockets landed near an oil refinery in the Khabat district of Erbil. Kurdish authorities blamed Iran-backed militias for the rocket fire.

 Dana Gas is yet to announce anything about the rocket attack. 

Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum agreed with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 2007. They established the Kurdistan Gas Project for exclusive rights to appraise, develop, produce, market, and sell hydrocarbons from the Khor Mor and Chamchamal fields, two of the biggest gas fields in Iraq.

"In the first six months of the year, the Company generated a net profit of AED 304 million (US$83mm) as compared to AED 407 million (US$111mm) in H1 2022. Profitability for the first half declined amid a 25% drop in the average price of Brent during H1 2023 to US$80 per barrel compared to US$107 per barrel in H1 2022," Dana Gas said in a statement on 9 August.

"The decline in profitability was also due to additional discounts on condensate sales in the KRI, where the Company began to sell to third party local buyers as other companies shut down production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI)," the statement added.