UAE’s Dana Gas Says Kurdistan Government Failed To Pay $100m

Dana Gas, one of the largest investors in Iraq’s Kurdistan, said on Monday the semi-autonomous region had failed to pay $100 million as instructed by a London arbitration court, prompting Dana to ask the court to enforce the order.

“An application to the English Court has been made for enforcement of the order, with the prospect of sanctions being imposed on the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) for non-compliance,” Dana said in a statement.

The case is part of much bigger “multi-billion dollar” claims that the Pearl consortium, led by Dana, brought against Kurdistan for breach of contractual commitments and which it says are due to be heard in London next April.

The consortium, which also consists of Crescent Petroleum of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Austria’s OMV and Hungarian oil and gas group MOL, had filed an arbitration case in London in October 2013, seeking to confirm its contract rights and to obtain payments for production.

The case is closely watched by other companies active in Kurdistan, whose untapped oil and gas reserves and lucrative production-sharing contracts have attracted major international oil companies in recent years.

Dana has said it is had not received any significant payments from the KRG.

The KRG has previously rejected claims, saying Dana’s statement about London court rulings were “misleading” and it was the consortium that owed it billions of dollars.

On Monday, Dana said the London Court of International Arbitration had ordered the KRG to pay the consortium $100 million, which the KRG failed to do by the stipulated deadline of Nov. 17, 2014.

Dana said it had therefore applied on Dec. 12 to the court for enforcement of the order.

The Pearl consortium has invested more than $1.2 billion in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to the statement, and currently produces an average of over 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, including 320 million cubic feet per day of gas.