Drones Hit Oil Fields in Northern Iraq in Spree of Attacks
(Bloomberg) -- Multiple oil fields in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq were attacked by drones on Wednesday, adding to a spate of hits on energy installations in the area this week.
A majority of oil companies in the region suspended production after the attacks, according to the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan. The Kurdish region lost nearly 200,000 barrels of oil production as a result, an official said in a social media post.
Two drones attacked the DNO ASA-operated Peshkabir field around 6 a.m. local time, the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in Kurdistan said in a statement. Another drone hit the Tawke project about an hour later, it said. A third attack was reported at a field in Ain Sifni in the north, the Kurdistan Ministry of Natural Resources said, adding the strikes caused significant damage to infrastructure.
DNO suspended output at its projects, and would restart once an assessment is completed, the company said. Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd., which operates the Shaikan field that produced a little over 40,000 barrels a day last year, shut operations as a precaution even though the assets haven’t been hit, the company said.
The Kurdistan region hasn’t been shipping any crude to global markets since an export pipeline to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast was shut over two years ago following a payments dispute. The vast majority of Iraq’s oil production comes from the country’s south.
Attacks on energy infrastructure aren’t uncommon in the north, which the Kurdistan administration often links on Iran-affiliated groups. No one has claimed responsibility for the latest spree. On Tuesday, the Sarsang field operated by US firm HKN Energy was shut after a strike caused an explosion and fire, while another project called Khurmala was targeted by two drones earlier.
The US embassy in Iraq condemned the attacks in a statement on Tuesday.
The Tawke field produced 29,153 barrels a day last year and Peshkabir’s output was 49,462 a day, according to DNO’s website.
The Sarsang field pumped about 30,000 barrels a day of oil on average in the first quarter, according to Canadian producer ShaMaran Petroleum Corp., which has a minority stake in the project. It wasn’t immediately clear how much crude the Khurmala field was producing.
(Updates with statement from APIKUR, Kurdish officials in second paragraph)
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