UAE’s Dana Gas Receives $73.7m From Iraq And Egypt This Year

UAE’s Dana Gas announced that it has collected $73.7 million (Dhs271 million) in receivables from the Kurdistan region of Iraq and Egypt this year.

The company’s joint venture in the Kurdistan region of Iraq received a new payment from the Kurdistan government, of which Dana Gas’ share was $32.4 million.

The new payment resulted from “productive discussions” between the Kurdistan government and Dana Gas last year, the company said in a statement.

In Egypt, Dana Gas received $41.3 million in January following discussions with the Egyptian authorities.

“These discussions continue to be constructive as both sides work to address the remaining outstanding receivables in as short a time as possible,” the statement added.

Dana Gas also received $48 million from the Kurdistan government in December 2012 and $163 million in Egypt last year.

Rashid Al Jarwan, executive director and acting CEO of Dana Gas, said: “We are pleased to see that our strategy and efforts for addressing our receivables position in Egypt and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is yielding results.

“Our operations have experienced strong starts to the year and we continue to pursue expansion targets in both regions.”

Dana Gas has added two new wells in Egypt, West Sama-1 and Allium-1, to its Nile Delta Basin network, while it is also in discussion to expand further in the Kurdistan region.

The company also stated that it is on track with its UAE Zora gas field project, and will be appointing an EPC contractor by the end of H1 2013 and will begin drilling in Q3 2013. The facility is expected to be fully operational in 2014 and will have an average production of 60 million cubic feet per day.

Dana Gas, which missed repayment of a $920 million maturing bond on October 31 2012, also confirmed that it is on track to complete its refinancing process in the second quarter of 2013.

The company has scheduled a shareholder meeting for a vote on the restructuring on April 23, after a meeting on March 21 failed to meet the required majority.