Drone strike suspends ops at Iraq's Khor Mor gas field, knocks out power in the region

A drone strike forced the shutdown of operations at the Khor Mor gas field, one of Iraqi Kurdistan’s largest, triggering major power outages across the region, engineers and officials said Wednesday.

According to a joint statement from the Natural Resources and Electricity ministries, gas flows to all Kurdistan power stations were halted after the attack. Local authorities reported widespread blackouts affecting much of the northern region.

Kurdish electricity ministry spokesperson Omed Ahmed said power generation could drop by about 3,000 megawatts as a result of the incident. Security sources said the drone hit storage tanks at the site, igniting a fire and injuring several workers.

Fire crews continued battling the blaze, and a field engineer noted that repairs to the main liquid-gas storage depot could take two to three days. “A drone struck a key gas storage facility at the field, causing extensive damage, and a fire is still burning,” one worker told Reuters from a shelter where staff had gathered amid concerns of additional strikes.

Footage shared by Kurdish network Rudaw on X showed smoke rising from the site as parts of Erbil experienced a blackout. Teams from both ministries, along with personnel from Dana Gas, one of the operators, were at the scene to assess the situation. Dana Gas and its affiliate Crescent Petroleum are part of the Pearl Consortium, which oversees development of the field.

Iraq’s Security Media Cell said the attack, described as a “treacherous terrorist” act, set a major storage tank on fire but caused no fatalities. The strike is expected to worsen electricity shortages in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, and authorities vowed to track down those responsible.

The perpetrator of the attack remains unknown. It marked the second attempted strike on the facility in recent days; on Sunday, Kurdish security forces fired at a drone approaching the site to prevent it from reaching the field.