Drone launched at gas field in Iraqi Kurdistan causes explosion, halts production

Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq say the Hormor gas field has been attacked. It is a major source of power for the region. There are reports that the grid has lost up to 80% of its total supply. A drone hit a gas storage facility, causing a fire. The attack has resulted in an electricity blackout across the entire Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Al Jazeera's Peter Smith joins us from the capital, Baghdad. Peter, what are you learning? Well, this attack happened in the last hour. It was a drone attack on the Khor Mor gas field in Iraq's Kurdistan region, as you've described, and it's halted production, disrupting electricity supplies across the Kurdish region. And now security sources have told us that this was an explosive-laden drone. That's how they've described it, and they say it struck. The gas storage facility at the site in Sulaymaniyah, part of the government region there, and an engineer working inside the facility has described the attack as causing a fire with black smoke rising from the field. We've seen video evidence that's been sent to us to support that as well. The Kurdistan Regional Government Electricity Ministry has told us that the disruption to gas supplies has now knocked... Between 2,500 and 2,800 megawatts of electricity generation off the grid. Now, those are obviously big numbers, but to put that into some perspective, we know that the peak electricity demand across the region is normally well above that, between 3,500 and 4,500 megawatts. So they are now trying their best in the region to prevent a total blackout, but the impact has been severe. A spokesperson for the Electricity Ministry has told us that the government's using hydroelectric power stations in the meantime and other facilities running on alternative fuels to try and maintain the electricity supplies that they can uphold, particularly focusing on emergency services like hospitals and water treatment plants. And they're hopeful that electricity generation could begin to recover gradually from tomorrow afternoon. Obviously, that depends on the impact, the severity of the damage, and on gas supplies being restored. Peter, is this in any way related to the regional war between the U.S. and Iran? Is it possible to even address that question at this very early stage? Well, that is the important context that everyone here and everyone in the region will be asking themselves. A precedent here, of course, in November last year, the Khor Mor gas field was also targeted in a drone attack that caused a fire and halted gas supplies to power stations a similar impact on the electricity outages across the Kurdistan region. And at that time, pro-Iranian armed factions were blamed for that. They didn't take responsibility, but they were blamed for impacting that and causing the damage. Thank you very much. Khor Mor in the region is one of the main sources of natural gas for electricity generation. It's important for the Kurdish economy, and the timing of this makes it important because of everything that's happening in the region. There have been almost weekly drone attacks on the anti-Iranian regime Kurdish factions. In that region, and we currently have a crisis between the two dominant parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. They are increasingly divided. There are hostilities in the region. And also, we know that Iran has longstanding security concerns about the Kurdish armed groups that are operating near its borders. Meanwhile, as I say, these Iran-aligned armed factions retain considerable influence inside Iraq And the Baghdad government here in Iraq is under pressure to bring those groups under state control. They have not completely disarmed as they were asked to do And there are longstanding disputes between the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the Kurdish authorities over control of energy resources. And the region's economic independence So we don't yet know who's behind this latest attack or whether it is connected to the ongoing political tensions in the region. But what is clear is that the Khormor gas facility is a vulnerable site. It has been attacked previously, and they have had consequences far beyond the site itself. That's something that we are seeing again tonight and for people across the Iraqi Kurdistan region Yeah, Peter Smith, listen, thank you very much for jumping on the phone for us. So right now, a majority of the people in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq are in the dark after a drone hit a gas field Khormor gas field We'll get more on this as and when we can. Peter Smith, thank you.