Iran ready to develop Arash gas field amid Kuwait’s repeated claims
A senior Iranian military official on Tuesday urged the oil and foreign ministries to push for Iran’s right to develop a disputed gas field in the Persian Gulf.
Iran has been locked in a long-standing tug-of-war with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia over the Arash field, referred to as Durra by the two Arab countries. Iran stresses that Arash is a shared gas field, while Kuwait and Saudi Arabia insist that, as per a seismic survey conducted by British energy giant Shell, the gas field lies “entirely” within their territorial waters, making its natural resources their exclusive property.
Kuwait reiterated its claim on the gas field as part of a final communiqué by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Tuesday, saying the Durra gas field is “entirely located in Kuwait’s maritime zone and its natural resources are shared jointly with Saudi Arabia.”
Pursuing the development of the Arash gas field is a “bread-and-butter issue,” said Brigadier General Abdolreza Abed, who runs Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters (KAA), the construction arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
“Iran and Kuwait are on an equal footing and have equal interests when it comes to the Arash gas field,” Abed was quoted as saying by Tasnim News Agency.
Reiterating the KAA’s readiness to develop the Arash gas field, Abed said, “We are all set to kick off drilling in the Arash field, and we have drilling rigs, but the Oil Ministry and the Foreign Ministry need to step up and set the stage for work to begin.”
The KAA chief said the Kuwaiti side had already teamed up with Saudi Arabia in developing the Arash field. “We should not just stand by and watch.”
Earlier in May, Abed said 40% of Arash belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran and rejected claims by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia that Iran had no shares in the gas field.
Iran says a seismic survey by the Iranian Offshore Oil Co. (IOOC), which is a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), shows that 40% of the gas field’s reserves fall within Iranian waters.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia signed a deal in 2022 to jointly develop the gas field. In October, the deputy CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said the gas field was expected to be fully commissioned by 2029.
The Arash/Durra gas field is located in the Persian Gulf. The field is estimated to hold 20 trillion cubic feet (566 billion cubic meters) of natural gas and 310 million barrels of gas condensate in its proven reserves. Assessments suggest that $7 billion is needed to develop the underwater reservoir.
The field was discovered 60 years ago. Iran has held inconclusive negotiations with Kuwait for three decades to determine the maritime borders. Tehran has on numerous occasion called for “technical and legal talks” to hash out the decades-long dispute.
The final communiqué by the GCC also drew criticism from Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani, who rejected the inclusion of Kuwait’s unilateral claim on the Arash gas field and said, “issuing repetitive statements and making unilateral claims have no legal value and doesn’t prove any right for the Kuwaiti side.”
Kan’ani stressed that “technical and legal negotiations and bilateral dialogue” are the “only reasonable and fruitful” way to reach a related sustainable agreement that serves the common interests of the two sides.
Trio isles Iran's
‘inseparable’ parts
The spokesman also slammed as “repetitive, non-constructive and futile” the GCC’s final communiqué, a segment of which pointed the three Iranian islands of Abu Musa, the Greater and Lesser Tunb as Emirati ones.
Stressing that the three islands are “integral and eternal” part of the Iranian territory, Kan’ani said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran considers any remarks regarding the residential development [of] and the travel of civilian and military officials to the islands that belong to Iran, as well as the holding of military exercises on its territorial borders as interference in its sovereign affairs and condemn them.”
The three Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa, the Greater and Lesser Tunbs have historically been part of Iran, proof of which can be found and corroborated by countless historical, legal, and geographical documents in Iran and other parts of the world.
However, the United Arab Emirates has repeatedly laid claim to the islands.
The islands fell under British control in 1921 but on November 30, 1971, a day after British forces left the region and just two days before the UAE was to become an official federation, Iran’s sovereignty over the islands was restored.