Dana Gas charters world's largest aircraft to Iraq

Dana Gas, the Middle East's first and largest regional private-sector natural gas company, along with its project partner Crescent Petroleum, has chartered the world's largest aircraft, the Antonov 124 (An-124), to transport a large load of equipment and components from Houston, Texas (USA) to Erbil, Iraq for use in Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum's projects under implementation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, at a cost of $1.25m.

The companies' project is being implemented on a fast-track basis and involves a total investment of $650m - the largest single private sector investment in Iraq since 2003.

The project implementation includes upstream development and production, processing with state-of-the-art LPG plants, and transportation of natural gas through a new 180km pipeline, in order to provide urgently-needed gas supplies to cost-effectively fuel new power stations under construction, providing savings to the Government budget of over $2bn annually in fuel costs.

The project implementation will also provide work opportunities for over 2,000 Iraqi nationals of all ethnic groups, and provide comprehensive training in oil and gas operations for Iraq's citizens.

The An-124 shipment consisted of essential project components weighing 58 tons that are to be utilized in the construction of two LPG plants which will be used to transport natural gas to new power stations being built in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

The equipment was loaded and secured carefully on the An-124 using the aircraft's 10-ton gantry crane and a team of specialized personnel over a period of five hours.

Part of a requirement identified in the later stages of the project to add flexibility to the plant, the components were identified, acquired, airlifted to Adana airport in Turkey, and transported on flatbed trucks to the project site in a record delivery time of just three weeks.

Thomas Watts, Project Director for the project in Iraqi Kurdistan, explained the rationale behind chartering the Antonov 124 for this task, and said, "Chartering the largest plane in the world at a cost of $1.25m to move urgently needed equipment from Houston to Iraq shows that Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum are going the extra mile to get the job done.

"We have a mandate to expedite the implementation of this project in order to meet the needs of the Iraqi economy and to deliver much-needed gas supplies that will fuel power generation and industry, resulting in major savings for the Iraqi economy and a catalyst for industry and resultant job-creation," Mr. Watts added.

The An-124 has been the largest plane ever mass produced in the world since 1982, with a capacity of up to 150 tons of cargo. It can also carry up to 88 passengers in its upper deck, and is able to kneel in order to facilitate front loading through its nose.

The An-124 has been used to transport some of the largest and most delicate cargo in the world, including large industrial equipment, train locomotives, small aircraft, archaeological treasures, and animals like elephants and even whales.