Dana Gas, a leading natural gas company in the Middle East, has announces total 2018 cash collections from operations in Egypt, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Sharjah in the UAE of $324 million (Dh 1.2 billion).

Further to the collections from Egypt that were already announced, the Company reported that during Q4 2018, Pearl Petroleum has received $102 million from condensate and LPG sales from the Khor Mor field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Dana Gas is a 35 per cent shareholder in Pearl Petroleum and accordingly its share of such receipts by Pearl Petroleum is $36 million. This brings total collections received by Pearl Petroleum for the year to date to $322 million and to $113 million for Dana Gas’ share.

There are currently no overdue receivables from the company’s KRI operations with all payments fully up to date, a company statement said.

Dr Patrick Allman-Ward, CEO, Dana Gas, said: “The overall cash collections from operations for the year is a positive achievement for Dana Gas and will support the company’s growth plans as well as dividend distribution potential. In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, our joint operations have received all payments in full and on time, which gives confidence for our planned future investments to more than double production levels there within the next few years.”

Dana Gas recently announced that as a result of the ramp up of production from debottlenecking project in the KRI and the completion of the Balsam-8 well in Egypt, its group production reached 70,000 barrels of oil per day (boepd). This represents a significant increase compared to the Company’s 9M 2018 average of 62,250 boepd.

The expansion of the gas processing plant in the KRI consisted of a series of plant additions and modifications to de-bottleneck throughput, raising output capacity from 305 MMscf/d of natural gas to 400 MMscf/d, with over 15,000 barrels per day of condensate. This is expected to add up to $50 million (AED 183m) annually to the Company’s revenues without incurring any significant operational costs.

Pearl Petroleum is also undertaking a multi-well drilling programme at Khor Mor and Chemchemal, with expansion plans to progress and grow gas production by a further 500 MMscf/d and liquids production by a further 10-12,000 boepd over the coming three years.

These are planned to be primarily funded by the sums set aside in the Settlement Agreement and from retained earnings from the expanded production streams and from third party financing arrangements, and are not expected to require cash injections from Dana Gas. – TradeArabia News Service