Iraq parliament holds key to gas pipeline

By all accounts, Sharjah’s Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas have pulled off a coup by persuading a pair of European oil companies to shell out roughly US$700 million (Dh2.57 billion) in cash and shares for 20 per cent of a politically risky, and so far unprofitable, gas project in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The “farm out” to Austria’s OMV and Hungary’s MOL more than covers the UAE partnership’s $605m of investment in the project to date, and establishes an asset value of $1.4bn to each of the Sharjah companies for their remaining 40 per cent stakes in Kurdistan’s Khor Mor and Chemchemal gasfields. It also furnishes a financial upside to the development by holding out the tantalising prospect of gas exports to Europe.

But Dr Hussein al Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister, has effectively vetoed the plan.