(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
DUBAI: Dana Gas said it and two other companies still had claims against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) estimated at more than $11 billion mainly for what they argue to have been wrongful interference in their rights over two fields in the Iraqi semi-autonomous region.
The claims by the group made up of Crescent Petroleum and Pearl Petroleum as well as Dana would be heard at an arbitration hearing planned for next year Dana said in a bourse statement on Tuesday adding the fields involved were Khor Mor and Chemchemal.
The KRG’s counter-claim for more than $3 billion would also be heard at the arbitration session Dana added. In response the KRG dismissed Dana’s statements as “inaccurate and misleading” and said the $11 billion figure was “pure fantasy” and had not been raised in the arbitration.
“The KRG vigorously denies that it has any liability to Dana for ‘wrongful interference’ with its rights in the amount now alleged or at all” it said in a statement.
In 2007 Kurdistan awarded Dana and the UAE’s Crescent Petroleum a 25-year deal to develop Khor Mor and Chemchamal. Austria’s OMV and Hungary’s MOL subsequently each took 10 percent of the venture.
But the project became beset by disagreements over legal rights to the fields and allegations that the consortium had been underpaid for condensate and liquefied petroleum gas products supplied from Khor Mor.
Dana said last week the tribunal of the London Court of International Arbitration ordered the KRG to pay $1.98 billion to the consortium directing that the payment be made within 28 days.
Dana Gas has not so far received any sums under the tribunal award or from an English High Court judgment of Nov. 20 it said in Tuesday’s statement.
(Reporting by Tom Arnold and Isabel Coles in Erbil; Editing by David Holmes and Susan Thomas)
Reuters