Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum are equal-stake partners in the project, and are investing $650 million under a strategic alliance and service contracts signed with the Kurdistan regional government in April 2007, reportedly making it the largest private-sector investment in Iraq and the largest private-sector oil and gas project in Iraq in several decades.
The gas will supply new power plants under construction near Erbil and Sulaimaniya, which will provide eventually 1,250MW of electricity for over four million Iraqi citizens. This is expected to provide Iraq with savings of approximately $2.5 billion a year in liquid fuel import costs.
As part of the project implementation, the primary phase was completed in 15 months. The companies have reportedly installed a 180km gas pipeline across mountainous terrain that sometimes required clearing of minefields.
In addition, upstream activities on seismic surveys and production wells were carried out, and new gas processing facilities have been installed. The initial primary phase gas production is set at 75 million cubic feet (Mcfe) per day, and will rise in stages to 300Mcfe per day within the first half of 2009, as the power plants become fully operational. Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum will be adding further processing capacity to handle the additional gas quantities.
