Khor Mor attack cuts electricity in Iraqi Kurdistan

Electricity was cut in parts of Erbil, Duhok and Zakho after an attack halted production at Iraq’s Khor Mor gas field on Sunday, November 8. The disruption travelled through the fuel supply: gas stopped reaching power stations, reducing the electricity available across the Kurdistan Region, 964media reported.

The regional electricity ministry reported losing about 2,800 megawatts of generation. Officials said they were turning to other sources to prioritize hospitals and water stations, but that announcement does not establish whether each facility received uninterrupted power.

Reuters, citing two regional electricity ministry sources, reported that a drone struck a liquefied petroleum gas storage tank, starting a fire. Workers moved into shelters within the facility.

Iraqi authorities’ preliminary assessment indicated no casualties. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered a joint investigation with Kurdistan Region authorities early Monday, according to the official statement reproduced by Shafaq News. Responsibility remained unestablished; Reuters reported no claim of responsibility.

How a gas shutdown reaches a household

Khor Mor supplies fuel to power stations beyond the field itself. Earlier reporting on its operations describes pipelines serving plants in Chamchamal, Bazian and Erbil. When those deliveries stop, electricity production can fall even without damage to the power stations.

That connection matters to daily life because Khor Mor supports the regional government’s Runaki programme, which provides round-the-clock public electricity and has been replacing neighbourhood diesel generators, according to the same report.

Three separate developments explain the present disruption:

The generation figure, also reported as 2.8 gigawatts by Reuters, is not a count of disconnected homes. It cannot, by itself, tell readers what proportion of households lost electricity or how long their cuts lasted.

What the backups can—and cannot—tell us

Electricity ministry spokesperson Omed Ahmed said the response would use hydropower stations at the Dukan and Darbandikhan dams, alongside plants capable of running on other fuels. His remarks, reported in Arabic by Al-Mirbad, identified hospitals and water stations as priorities.

These arrangements offer sources of electricity that do not depend on the interrupted Khor Mor gas deliveries. The statements do not quantify how much replacement generation was available or document service at individual hospitals and water stations. They also provide no basis for claiming that those facilities had failed.

Ahmed said restoring conditions to their previous state depended on resuming gas supplies to the region’s power stations. An unnamed field source told 964media that pipelines would be inspected after the fire was extinguished, with any necessary repairs determining the next steps. Neither account provided a confirmed restart time or a timetable for normal electricity service.