A consortium led by two UAE firms has signed a $250 million financing deal with the US International Development Finance Corporation or DFC, said local reports on Wednesday, September 8.
DFC is the development finance arm of the US government.
The consortium, called Pearl Petroleum Company Limited, is led by Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, both of which are from the UAE.
Pearl Petroleum’s financing from DFC is expected to boost its work at the Khor Mor Gas Plant in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Proceeds from the seven-year DFC financing are expected to support an increase in gas production capacity at the plant by 50 percent to 690 million standard cubic feet per day or mmscfd.
This will reportedly help it meet the rising demand for clean natural gas for electricity generation and industry in the KRI.
The total project cost is $630 million, and the remaining financing has already been secured through a regional bank facility and the EPC contractor.
The KM-250 project is said to be the first stage of a two-train expansion project at Khor Mor that aims to boost total production capacity to approach 1 billion scfd.
Work resumed in April 2021 after onsite construction was halted last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and is currently on track for completion by April 2023.
The total investment by Pearl Petroleum at Khor Mor to date exceeds $2.1 billion, with total cumulative production of over 341 million barrels of oil equivalent or boe in natural gas and liquids.
The gas produced to date has enabled emissions savings of 42 million tons of CO2 by displacing diesel fuel in power generation in the KRI.
Between 2018 and 2021, the Khor Mor Gas Plant also benefitted from a 45 percent production increase through an optimization of the facility, bringing current total production to 106,000 boe per day.