Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al Sabah said on Tuesday that Iran was not a party to Al-Durra field, which is “purely Kuwaiti-Saudi.”
Referring to statements he made during a joint press conference with visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Sheikh Ahmed said he meant “negotiations regarding the continental shelf, namely the tripartite negotiations involving Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran aimed at demarcating the borders of the continental shelf between the three countries.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the Kuwaiti minister underlined that Iran was not a party to Al-Durra field, which is Kuwaiti-Saudi in its entirety.
He noted that only Kuwait and Saudi Arabia enjoyed investment rights in this field in accordance with previously ratified bilateral agreements.
Last week, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait agreed to develop the Durra offshore gas field that lies in the shared neutral zone between the two nations. The agreement was signed by Kuwait’s Oil Minister Mohammad Al Fares and his Saudi counterpart Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, Kuwait’s official news agency KUNA reported.
The offshore gas field is expected to produce 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas and 84,000 barrels per day of condensate.
In response, Iran said that the Saudi-Kuwaiti agreement was “illegal”, claiming that Tehran also had a share in the field and must be included in any action to operate it.
This is not the first time that the Iranian government has claimed that it owns a share in the gas field, which it calls Arash.
Iranian Petroleum Minister Javad Owji recently said that Tehran has completed comprehensive studies of Arash, “by drilling exploration wells and conducting seismic surveys”, according to local media reports.
“With the installation of a jacket, the drilling operation in the field will begin soon,” he noted.
In 2016, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expressed, in a joint letter submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, their protest against the repeated attacks and abuses by Iran’s military boats in the maritime area that is adjacent to the neutral zone.
