Rocket strike on Khor Mor gas field in Iraqi Kurdistan triggers power outages. Will the attack impact oil production?

A rocket strike targeted a storage tank at the Khor Mor gas field in Iraq's Kurdistan region, one of the area's largest, forcing production to halt and triggering power outages, joint operator Dana Gas said on Thursday.

However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility and authorities did ot say who was behind the attack. The attack took place on Wednesday and did not cause any casualties. The gas field supplies for regional power generation, and the attack did not impact oil production or exports, Reuters reported.

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.

US 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.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) governs northern Iraq with a degree of autonomy, an area where U.S. firms hold substantial investments in the energy sector.

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 targeted a liquid storage tank at the Khor Mor facility, according to a disclosure by UAE-based Dana Gas to the stock market. The tank is part of new facilities partially financed by the U.S. and built by a U.S. contractor, an industry source said.

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

Power Cuts

Firefighters 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 following the attack, according to a statement by Kurdish Electricity Ministry spokesperson Omed Ahmed.

“There were no injuries to personnel,” Dana Gas said.

The Pearl Consortium, comprising Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, operates the field, and Dana Gas shares dropped 1.5% to 0.781 dirhams on Thursday following the incident.

The Khor Mor plant has been targeted several times in recent years by unclaimed Katyusha rocket fire and drone strikes. In one incident in April 2024, a drone attack killed four Yemeni workers.

Earlier this year, the Kurdistan region saw a series of unclaimed drone strikes as well, largely directed at oilfield sites, AFP reported.

(With inputs from agencies)