Dana Gas has received a one-off US$42 million (AED154 mm) dividend payment from Pearl Petroleum Company in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, KRI, the company said in a press release issued on Tuesday.

The payment has been distributed as a dividend by Pearl Petroleum (35% ownership by Dana Gas). The payment follows the release of an additional $120 million out of the $400 million that was paid by the Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, to the consortium under a Settlement Agreement reached in August 2017 and that was held in a Pearl Petroleum bank account pending financing for the expansion of the Khor Mor field.

The latest dividend payment which comes in addition to the regular dividends from operational cash flows brings the total dividends received by Dana Gas from the KRI in the year to date to $121 million (AED443 mm) in line with 2018 dividends.

Dr. Patrick Allman-Ward, CEO of Dana Gas, commented, "Collecting the payments from sales of gas and liquids on time and receiving these dividends provides us and our Partners with the confidence to push forward with our expansion plans. We hope to soon move forward with the construction phase for the next 250 MMscf/d gas train. This will raise production by over 60% when fully operational in 2022, and is expected to add between $175 and $200 million annually to our top line. It will also further boost local power generation capacity."