The Kurdistan Gas Project was established in 2007 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum entered into an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for exclusive rights to appraise, develop, produce, market, and sell hydrocarbons from the Khor Mor and Chemchemal Fields, allowing the government to benefit from stable gas supply for regional power generation. Production from the Khor Mor gas processing plant and the 180 km pipeline supplies gas to power stations in Chemchemal, Bazian and Erbil, generating over 2,000 MW of electricity. Production from these newly built facilities began in October 2008, within 15 months from project initiation – an industry record. In 2009, Pearl Petroleum (PPCL or Pearl) was formed as a consortium with Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum as shareholders (initially 50% each). Today, Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum each owns 35% after OMV, MOL, and RWE joined PPCL, purchasing a 10% share each.
The Kurdistan Gas Project was the first time that an international oil and gas company began producing gas in the KRI. To date, all of the gas produced by PPCL has been used for in-country power generation, providing affordable electricity in the KRI. The Khor Mor processing plant also produces natural gas liquids (NGL or gas condensate) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which are sold to the KRG and local traders.
Initially, the Khor Mor plant produced around 300 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d). Following a number of process improvements at the Khor Mor gas plant, including a bypass project completed in 2020 and two debottlenecking projects in 2018 and 2022, production capacity was boosted by more than 60%, from 305 MMscf/d in 2018 to 500 MMscf/d at the end of 2022. Further de-bottlenecking enhancements in 2023 enabled a record daily production output of 525 MMscf/d in March 2025, representing a 75% growth since 2017. The additional gas is being supplied to local power plants to meet the growing power demand in the KRI.
In 2019, Pearl signed a 20-year Gas Sales Agreement with the KRG to enable production and sales of an additional 250 MMscf/day under the “KM250 project”. The expansion project is expected to deliver first gas in Q1 2026 and involves a total investment exceeding US$800 million.
The uninterrupted supply of gas to power plants in Erbil, Chemchemal and Bazian provides fuel for over 75% of the KRI’s electricity generation capacity, benefiting more than six million people. This has resulted in major fuel cost savings through diesel substitution and delivered significant environmental benefits, including emissions savings of 42 million tonnes of CO2. Pearl Petroleum continues to voluntarily offset its annual emissions, making KRI operations one of the first carbon-neutral oil and gas production businesses in the Middle East.
Total investments in the KRI to date exceed US$3.5 billion, creating more than 20,000 direct and indirect job opportunities in the region.
Operations are predominantly staffed by local nationals, who represent nearly 85% of the workforce. Local staff continue to be trained to increase this further. The company also maintains a long-standing commitment to local communities, including power supply to neighbouring communities and various health, education and infrastructure programmes over the years.
The uninterrupted supply of gas to power plants in Erbil, Chemchemal and Bazian provides fuel for over 80% of the KRI’s power generation. It has resulted in significant fuel cost savings through substitution of diesel representing both environmental and economic benefits for the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a whole. The displacement of diesel fuel for power generation with gas has enabled emissions savings of 42 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to the combined GHG emissions from 9 million passenger vehicles driven for one year.
Operations are predominantly staffed by local nationals, which represent over 80% of the workforce. Local staff continue to be trained to increase this further. The company has a long history of contributing directly to local communities, including supply of local power to neighbouring communities and various health, education and infrastructure programmes, which continued in 2022.
In 2024, Pearl’s production (Dana Gas 35%) in the KRI increased by 4% year on year to 110,000 boepd (38,400 boepd for Dana Gas), consisting of 495 MMscf/d sales gas, 15,000 bbl/d condensate and 1,060 MTPD of LPG. A record production output of 525 MMscf/d was achieved in 2025.
In 2025, cumulative production from Khor Mor reached 500 million barrels of oil equivalent (Mmboe) in natural gas and liquids.
The significant reserves in Khor Mor and Chemchemal were independently audited by GCA in May 2019. Their report showed that Dana Gas’ share of the Khor Mor and Chemchemal 2P reserves was 4.4 Tscf gas, 136 MMbbl condensate and 13.3 million MT of LPG. The report showed that Dana Gas reserves increased by 10% to 1,087 MMboe. Part of the increase in reserves was due to the booking of 18 MMbbl of oil reserves for the first time in the Kor Mor field. This places the Khor Mor and Chemchemal fields among the biggest gas fields in the whole of Iraq, making them world-class assets.
The Company’s ambitious expansion programme in the KRI aims to increase daily production to approach 1 billion scf/d of gas and 35,000 bbl of condensate. This involves the addition of two incremental gas processing trains of 250 MMscf/d each (KM250 and KM500). The first gas processing train, KM250, is expected to deliver first gas in Q2 2026.
The project will add 250 MMscf/d of sales gas, 7,000 bbl/d of condensate, and 460 tons of LPG to the current production. Under the Gas Sales agreement, the additional quantities of gas will be used to supply local power stations with affordable and environmentally cleaner fuel, and further enhance electricity supplies to the region.
The strategic nature of the KM 250 project helped attract financing from the US government, banks, investors and contractor financing. In 2021, Pearl Petroleum signed a US$250 million financing agreement with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to help fund the KM 250 expansion project. In October 2024, Pearl successfully raised $350 million through a bond issue. The bond, which carries a 3.5-year maturity, will allow sufficient time for the completion of KM250 and covers any remaining capital expenditure needs.
Once completed, the KM250 expansion project is estimated to add at least $150 million to Dana Gas’ annual revenues, significantly enhancing Dana Gas and its Pearl partners participation in the economic development of the region.
Chemchemal Field
Building on the immense potential of the Chemchemal field, Pearl Petroleum also announced commencement of appraisal and initial development of the field to appraise the Chemchemal Cretaceous reservoir and initiate production of up to 75 MMscfd by the end of 2026. The partners have committed $160 million to drill three wells, install an extended well test (EWT) facility, and construct associated enabling infrastructure.
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