Drone Attack Halts Dana Gas's Khor Mor Field and Cuts Up to 2.8GW of Kurdistan Power

The field in Sulaimaniyah governorate supplies gas to power stations across the region, and its loss was felt immediately on the grid. Regional officials said generation in areas run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) initially fell by between 2,500 and 2,800 megawatts. Omed Ahmed, a spokesman for the region's electricity ministry, said the cut stemmed from the attack and the halt in gas supplies, according to The National. Hospitals and water stations were switched to hydropower and fuel-fired plants to avoid a total blackout, the newspaper said.

For Dana Gas and its partner Crescent Petroleum, both based in the UAE, Khor Mor is the main asset in the Pearl Petroleum consortium, which also includes Austria's OMV, Hungary's MOL and Germany's RWE. The company has not given a date for restarting output.

The field has been hit repeatedly. An attack in November 2025 also halted production and caused power cuts, and in July 2026 Dana Gas shut its main production sites for a period, citing credible security threats, The National reported. KRG authorities have blamed Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq for earlier strikes on the field. The Kurdistan region's electricity and natural resources ministries called the latest strike a "terrorist attack".

No group has claimed responsibility. Reuters reported that the drone was launched from the Tuz Khurmatu area of Salah al-Din governorate, outside the Kurdish region, though neither the launch site nor the attackers have been officially identified.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered a joint investigation with KRG authorities, and federal security officials visited the site on Monday morning. Al-Zaidi met KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in Baghdad the same day, and a government statement stressed "the importance of protecting oil facilities and infrastructure".

The attack comes as Baghdad faces pressure to bring weapons held by mostly pro-Iranian Shia factions under state control, while the US-Israel war on Iran, now in its ninth month, keeps the region on edge. It also follows the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's withdrawal from the KRG days earlier, which deepened its dispute with the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Analysts who spoke to Al Jazeera said the risk goes beyond lost electricity. Mohammed Amer, a political scientist and KDP member, said the repeated strikes were aimed at "foreign investment in Iraq's energy sector" and urged the government to hold those responsible to account. Political researcher Ghanem al-Abed said the damage could spread beyond the Kurdish region because the field also feeds electricity generation in the neighbouring governorates of Kirkuk and Nineveh.

The next update for investors is likely to come from Dana Gas once its damage assessment is complete, and that will show how long Khor Mor's output and the power it supports stay offline.