Drone Attack Halts Iraq's Khor Mor Gas Field, Leaving Most of Kurdistan Without Power

Production has stopped at Iraq's Khor Mor gas field after a suspected drone attack late on Sunday night, cutting power to most of the Kurdistan Region and underlining how exposed the region's energy infrastructure remains as conflict spreads across the Middle East. (Source: Reuters)

The field's joint operator, the United Arab Emirates-based Dana Gas, said on Monday that the attack caused a fire at the facility in Sulaymaniyah province, which has since been extinguished. No employees were injured, the company said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, but production remains suspended while the damage is assessed. (Source: Khaleej Times)

Two sources in the Kurdistan Region's electricity ministry told Reuters that a single drone struck a liquefied petroleum gas storage tank at the field, setting off the fire. Iraqi authorities said the attack happened at about 11:10 p.m. local time on Sunday, 8 November. (Source: Reuters)

The impact on the region's electricity supply has been severe. The Kurdistan Regional Government's electricity ministry said about 2.8 gigawatts of generation capacity was taken offline, with output falling from more than 3,700 megawatts before the attack to around 1,000 megawatts afterwards. Al Jazeera reported that more than 70 percent of the Kurdish region was left without power. (Source: The National)

Khor Mor is one of the largest gas fields in the Kurdistan Region and supplies the fuel for most of its electricity generation. It has been attacked repeatedly in recent years, including a major strike in November last year that also halted production and caused blackouts. Dana Gas briefly shut its main facilities at the field in July, citing credible security threats, before restarting operations later that month. (Source: The National)

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack. In a joint statement, the Kurdistan Region's natural resources and electricity ministries described it as a terrorist attack and said they were working to limit its impact. Kurdish officials have previously blamed attacks on the field on Iran-backed armed groups, though responsibility for this incident has not been established. (Source: Reuters)

Iraq's prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, has ordered the formation of a joint committee with Kurdistan Region authorities to investigate the attack. Dana Gas said it remained in close contact with both the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraq's federal authorities, which had expressed support after the incident. (Source: Kurdistan24)

The strike comes during a wider wave of attacks across the region. It follows a Houthi missile and drone attack that damaged an Aramco tower in Riyadh's financial district, and reports of a tanker being hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend. The United States and Iran are meanwhile in talks aimed at ending their conflict, with Washington saying further strikes are unlikely if negotiations make progress. (Source: Al Jazeera)

For now, the immediate question is how quickly Khor Mor can return to service. Dana Gas has not said when its assessment will be complete or when production might resume, and the region's power grid is operating at a fraction of its normal capacity. Until the field restarts, millions of people in the Kurdistan Region face extended blackouts, and Iraq's fragile federal-regional politics will be tested by the search for who ordered the strike. (Source: Rudaw)

This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance and verified against multiple independent sources.