ShaMaran Petroleum, a Canadian oil development and exploration company with shares in the two fields, said that production at its facilities has now resumed after it was halted on July 15 when a drone strike targeted the Sarsang block.
“The Atrush Block was not impacted, and production restarted at full capacity. The Sarsang Block restarted production at a reduced rate due to the damage sustained,” ShaMaran said in a statement.
The Kurdistan Region has come under dozens of rocket and drone attacks in recent weeks, including strikes on its oil facilities. The Kurdish government has blamed Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) for the attacks - charges strongly denied as “unacceptable” by Baghdad.
The strikes have badly damaged the Kurdistan Region’s oil infrastructure, halting production in some fields entirely and cutting total output by about 70 percent.
According to ShaMaran, half of Sarsang’s oil production is expected to remain offline “until late October 2025.”
On July 15, HKN Energy, Sarsang’s main stakeholder, reported an explosion at the oil field following a drone strike. The facility caught fire and operations were immediately suspended.
ShaMaran explained that despite no attacks at the Atrush block, production in the two facilities was suspended “as a precaution following several similar incidents.”
The production drop at the Kurdistan Region’s oil facilities has also delayed the transfer of oil to Baghdad, which has in turn stalled salary payments, as the federal government cites insufficient funds. The strikes also came amid suspended oil exports through Turkey.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin exporting oil independently in 2014.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), federal authorities, and international oil companies continue to negotiate a long-term framework to restore full oil export capacity from the Region.
ShaMaran holds a 50 percent working interest in the Atrush block and an 18 percent share in the Sarsang block.
