Rocket Attack Shuts Down Iraq’s Khor Mor Gas Field, Bringing Power Cuts

The attack, which did not cause any casualties and occurred late on Wednesday, was the most significant since a series of drone attacks in July hit various oilfields and slashed production from the region by around 150,000 barrels per day in the same month.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the latest strike. 

The attack had not impacted oil export and production operations in the region. The Khor Mor gas field provides gas supplies for regional power generation.

U.S. INTERESTS

Attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan’s oilfields are recurrent and often lead to a halt of supplies, with local officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as a likely source – acting against U.S. interests in the region. 

“How many attacks must happen before the U.S. government simply allows the KRG to purchase kinetic anti-drone equipment for us to defend our skies and critical infrastructure?” Aziz Ahmad, Deputy Chief of Staff to Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, said in a post on X after the attack.

U.S. companies are significant investors in Kurdistan’s energy sector.

The attack hit a liquid storage tank at the Khor Mor facility, the UAE-based company said in a disclosure to the stock market.

The tank targeted is part of new facilities that were partially financed by the U.S. government and built by a U.S. contractor, an industry source with knowledge of the matter said.

The new facilities were installed as part of the KM250 project which has boosted production capacity of the field by 50%, Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum said in October.

POWER CUTS

Firefighter teams managed to put out the fire in the early hours of Thursday, an engineer working at the field told Reuters, but the halt of gas supplies had already caused major power cuts across the northern region.

A drop of 3,000 megawatts in power generation was expected in Kurdistan after the attack, Kurdish electricity ministry spokesperson Omed Ahmed said in a statement.

There were no injuries to personnel, Dana Gas said. The Pearl Consortium, which includes Dana Gas and its affiliate Crescent Petroleum, holds the rights to develop the Khor Mor field.

Dana Gas shares fell 1.5% to 0.781 dirham on Thursday after the strike.

This is the second drone attack that has targeted the field in days as Iraqi Kurdish security forces opened fire at a drone to prevent it from reaching the field late on Sunday.