Iraq's KRG payments on time, output not affected by coronavirus: Dana Gas

The UAE's Dana Gas, which operates in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, said on Thursday the regional government is paying on time and the coronavirus outbreak has yet to affect the company's output there.

"We have been receiving payments on time," a spokesman for Dana Gas told S&P Global Platts on Thursday, adding output from the Kurdish region has not been affected "to date" from the coronavirus outbreak.

Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas has a 35% stake in the Pearl consortium, which mainly produces gas and associated liquids from Khor Mor and Chemchemal fields in the Kurdish region alongside UAE's Crescent Petroleum, Austria's OMV, Hungary's MOL, and Germany's RWE.​

Dana Gas produced 31,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2019, up by 18% from 2018 and is on track to boost its gas and liquids production in the Kurdish region by 500 million scf/d and 20,000 b/d over the coming three years.

The company, which currently produces 400 million scf/d of gas from the Kurdish region for local consumption, plans to boost its gas output by 250 million scf/d by the first quarter of 2022, with another 250 million scf/d coming in 2023.

International oil companies in the region, including UK's Genel and Norway's DNO, have warned of delayed payments from the Kurdistan Regional Government and potential curbs on operations there due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the oil price crash.