Latham Advises Pearl Petroleum on US$250 Million Financing of Major Expansion Project in Kurdistan

Latham & Watkins has advised Pearl Petroleum Company Limited (Pearl Petroleum) in relation to a US$250 million financing to be provided by the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to support the expansion of the Khor Mor gas treatment plant in Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI).

The expansion project will support an increase in gas production capacity by 50% to 690 million standard cubic feet (scf)/day to meet rising demand for clean natural gas for electricity generation and industry in the KRI. Total investment by Pearl Petroleum at Khor Mor to date exceeds US$2.1 billion with total cumulative production of over 341 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in natural gas and liquids.  The provision of uninterrupted supply of gas to power plants in Erbil, Chemchemal, and Bazian has enabled emissions savings of 42 million tonnes of CO2 by displacing diesel fuel in power generation in the KRI, thereby making a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution in the region.

Pearl Petroleum is a joint venture constituted by leading regional and global oil and gas companies, comprising Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum (joint operators), OMV of Austria, MOL of Hungary, and RWEST of Germany.

The multidisciplinary Latham team was led by Dubai partners Nomaan Raja and Chirag Sanghrajka, and London partner Craig Nethercott, with Dubai counsel Marc Makary and associate Mohsin Shafi.