KRG Signs US Firms Up To New Gas Development Contracts

23 May 2025 Issue: 68 / 21 By: Jamie Ingram

The KRG aims to secure additional US political support by signing up American firms to develop gas fields which can be used to supply federal Iraq and displace Iranian supplies. Baghdad has rejected the deals, but can expect to come under political pressure in the days ahead.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has awarded two gas licenses to US-owned companies in a bid to revive momentum in its upstream sector. Speaking on 19 May at a signing ceremony in Washington D.C., Prime Minister Masrour Barzani stressed repeatedly that American companies were awarded the acreage in a clear bid to also firm up political support from the US in its ongoing dispute with Baghdad over the legality of the KRG’s oil and gas contracts.

The first of the awards is in the form of a binding term sheet that the KRG signed with US firm HKN and Onex Group for development of the Miran Gas Field through a newly formed joint venture, Miran Energy. Onex Group has extensive energy sector holdings in Kurdistan. (CONTINUED - 1902 WORDS)