Abu Dhabi, May 19 (IANS) Dana Gas, the largest private natural gas company of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has announced that it will invest more than $500 million this year in its projects in the country, in Iraq and in Egypt, WAM news agency reported Monday. In a statement, the Sharjah-based gas major said Sunday: “This year we will be making major investments that will rapidly take Dana Gas to a new level in its growth and development.”

Ahmed Al-Arbeed, executive director of the company, said: “Dana Gas has already established strong positions in all areas of the natural gas business in the UAE, Egypt and Iraq, and we will continue to build upon these as well as expand into new countries in the GCC Region and North Africa, especially in view of the record oil prices currently witnessed.

“Our focus this year will be implementing the important projects in the UAE and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, while significantly expanding the drilling programme of new wells in Egypt in light of the encouraging new discoveries we have already achieved.”

Dana Gas is currently implementing a major integrated gas project in Iraq’s Kurdish region, which is the largest private sector energy project in Iraq involving gas development, production, processing and pipeline construction.

The project is scheduled to start gas production in the middle of 2008 and its production is expected to reach 300 million cubic feet per day by the year-end.

In Egypt, Dana Gas has established itself as the country’s sixth largest producer of gas with the capability of producing 140 million cubic feet per day.

In the UAE, Dana Gas has recently acquired a 25-year offshore licence for exploiting gas in an area of over 1,000 square km in Sharjah.