Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: Dana Gas on Thursday announced that its production reached 70,000 barrels oil equivalent per day (boepd) on 19 November, and has since been sustained above that level.

The Middle East’s largest regional natural gas company attributed the production hike from its debottlenecking project in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, according to a filing to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

“Production in excess of 70,000 [boepd] is a great achievement for Dana Gas. At the start of the year, we planned a drilling programme in Egypt and a debottlenecking project in the KRI that would significantly increase production. We have successfully delivered both projects,” Patrick Allman-Ward, Dana Gas CEO, said.

Moreover, the drilling of Egypt's Balsam-8 well has led to a sharp increase in overall production, the UAE-based energy producer noted.

The current output represents a significant increase compared to the company’s production average of 62,250 boepd in the nine-month period ended September.

“The increase in production will help offset the lower realised hydrocarbon prices that have impacted the oil industry in the last quarter and support growth in our revenue and net profit figures for the full year 2018 and beyond,” the CEO added.

Ward noted that Dana Gas is working on future projects in a bid to double its current production to 900,000 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d) over the coming three years, along with an increase in condensate to 36,000 bpd and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to 1200 metric tonnes per day (MTpd).

The UAE-based energy producer’s profit plunged 67% to AED 149 million in the first nine months of this year, from AED 458 million in the year-ago period. 

By 11:22 am UAE time, Dana Gas’s stock rose 5.85% at AED 0.85.