SULAYMANIYAH (The Thursday Times) — The Khor Mor gas field in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region still cannot produce any gas after a drone attack last Sunday caused heavy damage, its operator Dana Gas said on Saturday, as Iraq’s parliament set up an inquiry into the strike.
“As previously announced by official sources, the facility has sustained significant damage, and currently no amount of gas can be produced,” a spokesperson for the UAE-based company said in a statement. The company said some local media had made inaccurate claims about the plant’s condition and urged outlets to avoid “irresponsible coverage, speculation, and baseless interpretations”. It did not say when repairs could begin or when production might resume.
Farhad Atrushi, the second deputy speaker of Iraq’s parliament, said on Saturday that lawmakers had formed an investigative committee to examine two issues: the attack on Khor Mor and the situation in Jurf al-Sakhar, the stronghold south of Baghdad where Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi sacked nine officials over oil smuggling this week.
Power cut across the region
The attack late on November 8 struck the facility’s gas storage and truck-loading unit and started a large fire, according to Kurdish officials and the company. Dana Gas said the next day that the fire had been put out, that none of its staff had been hurt, and that production would stay suspended while the damage was assessed. No group has claimed responsibility.
Khor Mor, in the Chamchamal district of Sulaymaniyah governorate, supplies gas to power stations across the region, including in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Bazian, Chamchamal, and Duhok. The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Electricity Ministry said the strike knocked between 2,500 and 2,800 megawatts off the grid, and that it turned to the hydropower stations at the Dukan and Darbandikhan dams and to plants that can run on other fuels.
Omed Ahmed, the ministry’s spokesperson, said grid power fell to three or four hours a day immediately after the attack and has since been raised to six or seven hours.
Al-Zaidi said the day after the strike that there had been no casualties, and ordered a joint investigative committee with the Kurdish authorities. A drone hit the same facility in November last year, and no group claimed that attack either.
The field is run by Pearl Petroleum, a consortium led by Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, both based in the UAE. The shutdown comes as Baghdad and Erbil are still negotiating the Kurdistan Region’s share of Iraq’s 2027 budget, on which the cabinet put off a vote on Saturday.
