Daijiworld Media Network – Erbil
Erbil, Nov 30: Iraq’s Kurdistan Region has reached an agreement with the operator of the Khor Mor gas field to restart production “within hours” in order to restore electricity across the region, Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani announced on Saturday. The decision comes just days after the strategic gas facility was forced to shut down following a rocket attack.
The Khor Mor gas field, one of the largest energy assets in the Kurdistan Region, supplies natural gas for regional power generation. On Wednesday night, a rocket struck a storage tank at the site, prompting operator Dana Gas to suspend operations, which in turn triggered wide-scale power outages. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and authorities have not identified the perpetrators.
In a separate incident on Saturday, the Kurdistan Region’s Interior Ministry confirmed that one person was killed and several others injured when fuel tanker trucks were attacked in Erbil. The ministry described the attackers as “rioters.” The tankers were transporting liquid fuel meant to keep power plants running after the gas supply disruption at Khor Mor.
An industry source earlier said the damaged storage tank is part of newly constructed facilities built by a U.S. contractor and partially funded by the United States.
Prime Minister Barzani, in a statement issued in English, said he had personally spoken to Dana Gas leadership to thank them and their workforce for their “extraordinary resilience and determination” in the face of eleven attacks targeting the Khor Mor field.
He noted that the latest strike was the most serious since July, when a wave of drone attacks on regional oilfields cut output by nearly 150,000 barrels per day.
Barzani also said he had urged Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani to ensure that those behind the attacks are held accountable “to the full extent of the law, whoever they may be and wherever they are.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which enjoys autonomy in northern Iraq, remains a key hub for U.S. energy investments, making the recent escalation of attacks a matter of growing regional and international concern.