Saudi, Kuwait reject Iran claims to disputed gas field
- August 4, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
No Comments
Saudi, Kuwait reject Iran claims to disputed gas field
Subject: IR
Section: Places in news
Context:
- Saudi Arabia and Kuwait said they have sole ownership of a disputed gas field also claimed by Iran, in an escalating feud after Tehran threatened to pursue exploration.
Details:
- The offshore field, known as Arash in Iran and Dorra in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has long been a focal point of contention between the three countries.
- The two Arab Gulf states renewed their previous and repeated calls to the Islamic Republic of Iran to negotiate the demarcation of their maritime borders to settle the issue.
- Iran and Kuwait have held unsuccessful talks for many years over their disputed maritime border area, which is rich in natural gas.
Origin of the dispute:
- The row over the field stretches back to the 1960s, when Iran and Kuwait each awarded an offshore concession, one to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the forerunner to BP, and one to Royal Dutch Shell.
- The two concessions overlapped in the northern part of the field, whose recoverable reserves are estimated at some 220 billion cubic metres (nearly eight trillion cubic feet).
- Last year, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement to jointly develop the field, despite objections from Iran which branded the deal as “illegal”.
- It is noteworthy that the borders between Saudi Arabia and Iran have been delineated, while the borders between Iran and Kuwait remain a subject of bilateral dispute.
Countries sharing Border:
- Iran:
- Iran borders Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan.
- It shares maritime borders with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
- Saudi Arabia:
- Shares border with: Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
- Saudi Arabia shares maritime boundaries with Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea in the Red Sea, and with Iran, and Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.
- Kuwait:
- Kuwait is bounded to the west and north by Iraq, to the east by the Persian Gulf, and to the south by Saudi Arabia.