Dana Gas gets $48m payment for Iraq fuels

Dana Gas has received US$48m in overdue payments for fuel supplied in Kurdistan, the United Arab Emirates based company said on Tuesday.

Delays in getting paid for operations in both Kurdistan and Egypt have contributed to Dana's financial problems which culminated in it becoming the first United Arab Emirates company to miss a bond redemption when its sukuk matured on October 31.

Dana is due to announce details of an agreement with its creditors to restructure its US$920m Islamic bond soon.

Dana Gas said it had received payment for some of the liquid fuels it has produced in Kurdistan on Monday after Iraq's Federal Government paid the Kurdistan Regional Government.

"We are pleased to receive this payment, and are working with the Kurdistan Regional Government to further address the outstanding receivables," Rashid Al-Jarwan, the acting CEO of the energy company said in a statement.

Dana Gas said in its 2011 results that trade receivables at the end of the year stood at AED1.74bn (US$474m), of which about 48 percent was owed by Egypt and 52 percent by Kurdistan. On this basis, Monday's payment would cut the receivables due from Kurdistan to under US$200m.

"In Egypt the government has been settling the company's receivables for current production and working pro-actively with the company to address the US$200m of receivables from 2011," the statement said.

Egypt has been wracked by political and economic turmoil since a popular uprising unseated President Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, and the government has fallen behind in its payments to several fuel suppliers.