Late on Sunday night, a single drone was enough to switch off much of the lights across Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. The aircraft struck the Khor Mor gas field in Sulaymaniyah province at around 11pm local time, setting part of the site on fire and halting the flow of gas that feeds most of the region’s power stations.
The knock-on effect was immediate. Power plants serving Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Bazian, Chamchamal and Duhok lost their fuel, and the regional electricity ministry put the lost generating capacity at up to 2,800 megawatts. According to Al Jazeera, well over two thirds of the region lost power. A ministry source told Kurdistan24 that output fell from over 3,700 megawatts to roughly 1,000, warning that some areas might receive only five or six hours of supply a day.
To avoid a total blackout, officials are leaning on hydropower from the Dukan and Darbandikhan dams and on plants able to burn alternative fuels, with hospitals and water stations first in line.
On Monday the field’s Emirati operator, Dana Gas, told investors that the facility had been hit by what it believes was a drone. The blaze was put out and nobody on staff was hurt, it said, but production will stay suspended while the damage is assessed. Local reporters said the drone hit the liquefied petroleum gas unit, a part of the complex not targeted before.
Nobody has claimed responsibility. Kurdish officials have previously blamed Iran-backed militias for strikes on Khor Mor, which has been hit repeatedly since the war involving Iran began earlier this year, and the regional government labelled this one a “terrorist attack”. In Baghdad, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi set up an inquiry together with officials from Erbil.
When normal service returns depends on one thing alone, a ministry spokesman said: restarting gas deliveries from the field.
