Dana GasDana Gas

Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum

Dana GasDana Gas and Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum are 50:50 partners on the project, and are investing US$650 million under a Strategic Alliance and service contracts signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in April 2007, making it the largest private-sector investment in Iraq today and the largest private-sector oil & gas project in Iraq in several decades. The gas will supply new power plants under construction near Erbil and Sulaimaniya, which will provide eventually 1,250 MW of urgently needed electricity for over 4 million Iraqi citizens. This will provide Iraq with savings of approximately $2.5 billion a year in liquid fuel import costs.

As part of the project implementation, the primary phase completed in a record time of 15 months, the companies have installed a 180km gas pipeline across challenging mountainous terrain that sometimes required the clearing of minefields. In addition, upstream activities on seismic surveys and production wells were carried out, and brand new gas processing facilities were installed. The initial primary phase gas production is at 75 million cubic feet per day, and will rise in stages to 300 million cubic feet per day within the first half of 2009, as the power plants become fully operational. Dana GasDana Gas and Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum will be adding further processing capacity to handle the additional gas quantities.

In total, over 50,000 tonnes of equipment were imported in over 2,300 truck-loads, and over two thousand Iraqi workers from all ethnic groups and sects worked together in implementing the project, supported by expatriate workers from over 20 nationalities in the region and worldwide. The pipe material was supplied from China and Thailand, and the state-of-the-art gas processing plant was imported from the USA. Local private companies with Turkish partners were used as contractors in order to maximize local content and develop local experience and expertise.

In addition to their investment and work on the project, Dana GasDana Gas and Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum partnered with local charitable foundations to invest in community projects and development, including providing school supplies, drinking water treatment, electrical generators for distant villages, fuel for generators, mobile medical units, and youth sports facilities, as part of the Companies' corporate social responsibility programme.

Commenting on the achievement, Mr. Ahmed Al-Arbeed, Upstream Executive Director for Dana GasDana Gas, said: "We are very proud of this historical milestone, as the first companies from the Middle East to invest in Iraq's oil and gas sector. We wish to thank the leadership and cooperation shown by the KRG, and also all of our staff, our contractors, and local officials for their support in this remarkable joint effort."

"This is the first project of its kind in Iraq, and it will provide important economic and social benefits for the Kurdistan region and all of Iraq", added Mr. Majid Jafar, Executive Director Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum. "We aim to now build on these achievements in the Kurdistan Region and across Iraq, with our strategic focus on maximizing economic benefit and addressing local needs."

In parallel with supplying the local power plants, Dana GasDana Gas and Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum are also in discussion with the the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq to review the natural gas resources in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq for its optimal development and utilization. To this end, the companies continue to assist the Ministry of Natural Resources to create a broad investment framework to develop the "Kurdistan Gas City" project - a major gas-utilization industrial complex to promote investment in a variety of gas-related industries to maximize local economic benefit and job creation. The investment framework shall encourage local private sector involvement and to attract investments by regional and international companies, which Dana GasDana Gas and CrescentCrescent intend to participate in.

-Ends-

About Dana Gas
Dana GasDana Gas (PJSC) is the first regional private-sector natural gas company in the Middle East, established with over 300 reputable founder shareholders from across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, and some 300,000 investors from over 100 nationalities worldwide who submitted applications of over US$78 billion over ten days in the company's regional IPO in late 2005. Headquartered in Sharjah in the UAE and listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Market (ADSM), Dana GasDana Gas already possesses a network of offices in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UK, and Iraq, with further offices opening throughout the Middle East. Dana GasDana Gas currently has assets and projects in gas exploration and production, processing, transportation and marketing in the UAE, Egypt and Iraq, and aims to play a major role in the rapidly-growing natural gas business throughout the Middle East North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) Region across the entire gas value chain. In addition to its current projects, Dana GasDana Gas will be expanding its activities in all elements of the natural gas value-chain, including upstream exploration and production; through the midstream transmission and distribution of gas including LNG trading; and downstream into gas-related industries and petrochemicals. www.danagas.ae

About CrescentCrescent Petroleum
Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum is the oldest private exploration and production company in the Middle East, with over 35 years of experience as an international operator in numerous countries including Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Canada, Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Argentina, in addition to its continuing local operations in the United Arab Emirates. Headquartered in Sharjah in the UAE, Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum has international offices in the UK, Iran, and three locations across Iraq, as well as affiliated offices in Egypt, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. Crescent PetroleumCrescent Petroleum is also the largest shareholder in Dana GasDana Gas, the Middle East's first and largest regional private-sector natural gas company. www.crescent.ae

For more information, please contact:
Wajih Halawa
Maryam Keblawi
SAHARA Communications
tel: +971-4-329 8996
tel: +971-50-240 3357
email: wajih@saharagcc.com

© Press Release 2008 from Sahara

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