Dana Gas Net Profit Surges 11 Times in Q2

In May, the company announced that it was part of a UAE and European consortium planning to pump enough gas from Iraq’s Kurdistan region to kick-start the estimated $10 billion Babucco pipeline project for supply to European countries.

The company, as part of the deal, sold a 10 per cent stake in its 50 per cent interest in Kurdish operating unit Pearl Petroleum. “The second quarter of 2009 was marked by significant events for Dana Gas, particularly in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where we entered into strategic partnership agreements with two leading Central European integrated oil and gas groups — OMV, Austria’s largest listed industrial company, and MOL, Hungary’s largest listed company,” Dana Gas Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Al Arbeed said:

OMV said it would pay $350 million to Dana’s parent company Crescent Petroleum and Dana for a 10 per cent stake in Pearl. Before the deal, Crescent and Dana each held 50 per cent in Pearl.

Hungary’s MOL also said it would give three per cent of its shares each to Crescent and Dana. In return, MOL would take 10 per cent in Pearl.

Dana Gas’s Egypt operations contributed significantly to the results, as it ended the quarter with a production of 3.19 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, or boepd, for the quarter. “In Egypt, we continued with our exploration success and significantly increased our production rate,” Al-Abreed said.

“The new Sama-1 discovery offers the company an opportunity to achieve an additional production increase, which will push us up to 40,000 boepd,” Al Arbeed said. 


abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com

With inputs from agencies