A rocket attack hit a storage tank at Iraq’s Khor Mor gas field, one of the largest in the Kurdistan region, shutting production and causing power cuts, joint field operator Dana Gas said on Thursday.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and authorities did not say who was behind the attack, which did not cause any casualties and took place late on Wednesday. The gas field provides supplies for regional power generation, and the attack did not impact oil production or exports.
The attack was the most significant since a series of drone attacks in July hit oilfields and cut production from the region by around 150,000 barrels per day.
Attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan’s oilfields are recurrent and often lead to a halt of supplies, with local officials pointing to fighters as a likely source, acting against US interests in the region.
“How many attacks must happen before the US 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.
The KRG, or Kurdistan Regional Government, exercises autonomy in northern Iraq, where US companies have significant investments in energy.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani spoke by phone to Barzani and condemned the attack as ‘an attack on all of Iraq’. They agreed to form a joint investigative committee to identify those responsible.
The attack hit a liquid storage tank at the Khor Mor facility, UAE-based Dana Gas said in a disclosure to the stock market. The tank is part of new facilities partially financed by the US and built by a US contractor, an industry source said.
The new facilities were installed as part of the KM250 project, which has boosted production capacity of the field by 50 per cent, Dana Gas and its affiliate Crescent Petroleum said in October.
Firefighters managed to put out the fire in the early hours of Thursday, an engineer working at the field said, 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 Crescent Petroleum, holds the rights to develop the field. – Reuters
