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Dana Gas Project in Iraqi Kurdistan over 70%
Complete
2.3.2008
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Dana Gas to supply gas to
Iraqi Kurdistan from mid-2008. Company Chairman
briefs KRG Prime Minister on Progress. Total
Investment of $650 million, highest in Iraqi
petroleum sector.
March 2, 2008
DUBAI, UAE, -- Dana Gas, the Middle East's
first and largest regional private sector natural
gas company, has announced that its project in the
Kurdistan Region of Iraq to supply, process and
transport natural gas to fuel urgently needed local
electricity generation is progressing at a rapid
pace, with over 70% overall project completion to
date. |
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The project, following
service agreements signed in April 2007 with the
Kurdistan Regional Government and carried out in
partnership with Crescent Petroleum, has completed
the engineering, procurement and manufacturing
phases,www.ekurd.net
and is now in the
construction stage, using Iraqi contractors to
maximise local content and economic benefit. The
entire project is on track for first gas supply of
150 million cubic feet of gas per day by middle of
this year, rising to 300 million cubic feet by early
2009.
The gas will supply new power plants under
construction in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah, to provide
1,250 MW of electricity generation, for the benefit
of over 4 million Iraqi citizens in the Kurdistan
Region and the rest of Iraq.
The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional
Government of Iraq, His Excellency Nechirvan
Barzani, received Hamid Jafar, Executive Chairman of
Dana Gas and Chairman of the Board of Crescent
Petroleum, who briefed the Prime Minister on
progress of the project, which involves a total
investment of $650 million - the largest single
private sector investment in Iraq since 2003. The
project implementation includes upstream development
and production, processing with state-of-the-art LPG
plants, and transportation of natural gas through a
new 180km pipeline, in order to provide
urgently-needed gas supplies to cost-effectively
fuel the new power stations under construction,
providing savings to the Government budget of over
$2 billion annually in fuel costs. The project
implementation will also provide work opportunities
for over 2,000 Iraqi nationals of all ethnic groups,
and provide comprehensive training in oil & gas
operations for Iraq's citizens.
The meeting between the KRG Prime Minister and Hamid
Jafar also covered the progress of the Strategic
Alliance Protocol signed by the parties, whereby the
Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, Dana Gas and
its partner Crescent Petroleum have agreed to
jointly review the region's natural gas resources in
Northern Iraq with a view to the optimization,
development and utilization of that important
resource for the benefit of the Iraqi people. The
Protocol agreement includes the "Kurdistan Gas City"
- a major new gas-utilization industrial complex to
be built over an area of approximately 35 square
kilometers,www.ekurd.net
designed to promote
private sector investment in a variety of
gas-related industries to further benefit the
country's citizens through training, job creation in
the tens of thousands, and the promotion of general
economic activity. The initial feasibility study for
the "Kurdistan Gas City" project has now been
completed, with final site selection underway.
Commenting on the positive progress, His Excellency
Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan
Regional Government of Iraq, said: "We are very
pleased with the rapid progress of this important
project which will benefit not only the people of
the Kurdistan Region but contribute to affordable
electricity for the whole of Iraq. Being from the
region, Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum have
demonstrated a unique ability to cooperate
positively with local communities in a beneficial
manner, while implementing this large and complex
project in record time. We are confident that this
important initiative by the KRG with Dana Gas and
Crescent Petroleum will set an excellent example to
other parts of Iraq for the country's economic
development for the benefit of all Iraqis."
Hamid Jafar, Executive Chairman of Dana Gas and
Chairman of the Board of Crescent Petroleum, added:
"We have been honoured to work on this project to
provide a complete solution of state-of-the-art gas
field development, processing and transportation
that is urgently required on a fast-track basis for
electrical power generation for Iraqi citizens. We
are also excited by the Gas City project, to provide
added value and economic benefit from natural gas
resources, including productive job creation. We are
committed to the immediate progress and development
of Iraq's oil & gas sector, as we belong to the
region and are here for the long-term."
Kurdistan Gas City
Dana won a service contract from Kurdistan region
authority in April 2007 for the rapid installation
of processing and transmission facilities at the
Khor Mor field to begin supplying gas for power
generation by January 2008.
The project also required the construction of a 180
km (111 miles) of pipelines for the gas.
"The entire project is on track for first gas supply
of 150 million cubic feet of gas per day by middle
of this year, rising to 300 million cubic feet by
early 2009," Dana said. The project is 70 percent
complete, it added.
The gas is to supply two power plants with capacity
to generate 1,250 megawatts of power under
construction near the cities of Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah. The gas project would save the KRG
some $2 billion a year that would otherwise have to
be spent to import liquid fuels for power
generation, Dana said in a statement.
"We are very pleased with the rapid progress of this
important project which will benefit not only the
people of the Kurdistan region but contribute to
affordable electricity for the whole of Iraq," KRG
Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, said in the
statement.
The Khor Mor field was shut after the first Gulf War
in 1991. Dana is also appraising the Chemchemal
field.
When Dana won the service contract, it also signed
an agreement with the KRG to evaluate development of
the region's gas reserves. That deal may eventually
lead to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in
northern Iraq exporting gas to neighbouring
countries.
Dana and the government were also drawing up plans
for a large gas-fed industrial complex, to be named
Kurdistan Gas City, which may include petrochemical,
metals and other heavy industry plants. The
feasibility study for the project is complete and a
site is being found, Dana said. Dana and Crescent
aim to use the city as a model for more projects in
the region.
"The gas city will be the first of its kind in the
Middle East, and a unique concept that Dana Gas and
Crescent Petroleum aim to bring to other locations
in the region also, with a focus on gas utilisation
to maximise inward investment and local job
creation," Thomas Watts, project director, said.
About Dana Gas
Dana Gas (PJSC) is the first regional
private-sector natural gas company in the Middle
East, established with over 300 reputable founder
shareholders from across the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) region, and some 425,000 investors
from over 100 nationalities worldwide who submitted
applications of over US$78 billion over ten days in
the company's regional IPO in late 2005.
Headquartered in Sharjah in the UAE and listed on
the Abu Dhabi Stock Market (ADSM), Dana Gas already
possesses a network of offices in Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, the UK, and Canada, with further offices
opening throughout the Middle East. Dana Gas
currently has assets and projects in gas exploration
and production, processing, transportation and
marketing in several countries, and aims to play a
major role in the rapidly-growing natural gas
business throughout the Middle East North Africa (MENA)
Region across the entire gas value chain. In
addition to its current projects, Dana Gas will be
expanding its activities in all elements of the
natural gas value-chain, including upstream
exploration and production; through the midstream
transmission and distribution of gas including LNG
trading; and downstream into gas-related industries
and petrochemicals.
www.danagas.ae
SAHARA Press Release | saharagcc com | Reuters
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