Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum plans to expand its gas production capacity in the north of Iraq to 650 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) from an average of 340 million cf/d currently.

Crescent Petroleum will submit a proposal to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG’s) Natural Resources Ministry in the coming weeks for approval, according to Mohamed Makkawi, the company’s project director.

The increase will mostly come from the Khor Mor gas field, along with production from the Chemchemaal field, which as yet is undeveloped.  

According to sources close to the project, conceptual designs and feasibility studies are currently under way.

The Khor Mor and Chemchemaal gas fields are operated by Pearl Petroleum, a joint venture of Crescent, the UAE’s Dana Gas, Austria’s OMV and Hungary’s MOL.

The Khor Mor field currently produces about 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day of gas along with 15,000 barrels a day (b/d) of condensates. Productiion began in October 2008, with gas supplied to local power stations producing 1,750MW of electricity.