ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - It is uncertain when power will be restored, the spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Electricity told Rudaw on Friday, two days after an attack on the Region’s primary gas field caused widespread outages.
“When the flow of gas resumes, electricity will return to normal in 24 hours,” said Omed Ahmed. He noted that they do not know when the flow of gas will resume.
The electricity supply across the Kurdistan Region dropped to about five hours a day after an attack on the Khor Mor gas field ignited a fire and halted gas flows on Wednesday night. According to information obtained by Rudaw, the situation at the field has returned to normal and staff are on stand-by, but the flow of gas has not yet resumed.
An electricity official in Sulaimani said it could take up to 72 hours for full restoration of power.
“So far we have not been notified by Khor Mor as to when gas supplies to the power stations will resume, so we cannot set a clear timeline for restoring power to normal levels,” said the source. “Once gas supplies to the power stations resume, power hours will increase, but returning to pre-attack levels at the Khor Mor field will take 72 hours.”
Khor Mor is the main source of gas for electricity generation in the Kurdistan Region. About 80 percent of power production was knocked out because of the attack, the electricity ministry spokesperson said following the attack.
Located in the Chamchamal district of Sulaimani province, the Khor Mor is operated by Pearl Petroleum, a consortium that includes UAE-based Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum.
The Kurdish and Iraqi interior ministries are cooperating to investigate the attack and expect to have results within 72 hours. No group has claimed responsibility.
The United States embassy in Baghdad offered its help to protect the gas field as it is vital infrastructure.
“We are prepared to lend support to efforts to protect this critical infrastructure, and we will continue to underscore the importance of Iraq asserting its sovereignty in the face of attempts to undermine it, and ensuring all weapons, especially drones, missiles, and rockets, are brought under state control,” the embassy said in a strongly worded statement on Thursday.
Kurdish officials say the Region’s oil and gas infrastructure has been attacked dozens of times in recent years, blaming militia factions formally tied to Iraq’s security apparatus but operating outside the government’s authority.