Dana Gas, the Middle East’s largest regional private sector natural gas company, has received a further $59.5 million (Dh218 million) dividend payment from its joint venture operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

 

This payment takes the total dividends received from those operations to Dh439 million ($119.7 million) so far in 2018, with all payment received on time and no outstanding receivables, the company said. 

 

The payment has been distributed as a dividend by Pearl Petroleum, the consortium jointly owned by Dana Gas (35%), Crescent Petroleum (35%) as well as OMV, MOL and RWE (10% each). 

 

The payment follows the release of $150 million out of the $400 million that was paid by the Kurdistan Regional Government to the partners under a Settlement Agreement reached in August 2017 and that was held in a Pearl Petroleum bank account pending financing for an expansion plan at the Khor Mor field.  Financing has been part achieved from a term facility agreement for a $150 million (Dh550 million) loan to Pearl Petroleum to fund the production expansions at Khor Mor. 

 

In addition, a dividend distribution of $20 million was made to the Pearl Petroleum partners from payment for liquids (condensate and LPG) produced and sold in the KRI.  In total, therefore, Dana Gas received $59.5 million (Dh218 million) as a dividend from Pearl Petroleum reflecting its equity share in the consortium, it said.

 

“The consistent and timely payments received from our operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq gives us the confidence to continue investing and expanding our production. With our world-class reserves in the Khor Mor and Chemchemal fields and growing market for natural gas, combined with higher energy prices worldwide, the outlook is very positive for continued growth and economic returns to shareholders,” said Dr Patrick Allman-Ward, CEO of Dana Gas.

 

A multi-well drilling programme at Khor Mor and Chemchemal and a debottlenecking of existing processing facilities are currently under way, with expansion plans in progress to grow gas and liquids production by 25% later this year, and by a further 132% over the coming three years. These are planned to be primarily funded by the sums set aside in the Settlement Agreement and third-party  financing arrangements, and so are not expected to require further cash injections from Dana Gas, it said. - TradeArabia News Service