Kuwait mum as Iran drills disputed gas field
By Miriam Amie
KUWAIT CITY (DPA): Kuwait's government remained uncharacteristically silent on Monday over the disclosure that Iran has begun drilling in a rich offshore gas field whose sovereignty is under dispute by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheiks Saud Nasser al-Sabah refused to comment when asked by the Deutsche-Presse Agentur, on the sidelines of a parliament session if Kuwait had approached Tehran about its drilling operation in the Dorra field situated east of the onshore Kuwait-Saudi Arabia border region called the Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) where the two share mineral rights.
Kuwaiti oil executives told DPA exclusively last week that Iran set up a rig and began drilling in Dorra about four months ago.
They said while Kuwait and Saudi Arabia spent time negotiating the boundaries of the zone, Iran sank a drilling rig at the crest, or center of the most productive part of the field.
Afterward al-Qabas newspaper reported that Sheikh Saud Nasser had requested Iran to stop the drilling, but the minister would not confirm, or deny this.
Since then analysts have been speculating nearly daily in local newspapers as to the political ramifications of Iran drilling for gas in the disputed area.
PNZ boundaries are clearly marked onshore.
But the zone's exact offshore boundaries are not officially demarcated and have been under Saudi-Kuwait negotiations for the past few years.
Kuwait believes it has full rights to the offshore Dorra field which is estimated to contain five billion barrels 'equivalent' of gas and condensate.
Saudi Arabia feels that Dorra gas should be shared equally with Kuwait, as is product extracted from neighboring fields in the offshore neutral area.
Western diplomats said the situation has the potential to become "very sticky," but are also reluctant to comment extensively on the matter.
Senior Kuwaiti officials have stated over the years that Kuwait would begin negotiations with Iran on the eastern boundary of the offshore PNZ once it had settled on the exact offshore boundary with Saudi Arabia.
That settlement has never occurred.
Some political analysts have pointed the finger at the United States as encouraging Iran to begin the drilling operation in the disputed area to prolong instability in the region.
"We are afraid that the Iranian drilling in the Dorra field might be a political move that has been encouraged by the United States, and if our fears are rational, the matter requires a political stand to be able to analyze the situation," wrote Abdul Amir al-Turki in al-Siyassa newspaper Monday.
"Is this Iranian drilling in the Dorra field an American test for us to know what we have in store as political capabilities and what we need from Washington?" asked Turki. "The answer will be fatal," he added.
"The unilateral Iranian drilling in Dorra field without obtaining approval from other concerned parties is a clear alarm and an attempt to prove that the Arab Gulf region needs chaperoning, and needs (international powers) to guarantee peace in the region," wrote political analyst Abdul Latiff al-Duaij in Monday's al-Qabas newspaper.
Some oil experts have questioned why Kuwait is keeping so quiet on the matter.
"After all it is a matter of Kuwait sovereignty and our natural resources," said one expert.
The Japanese majority-owned Arabian Oil Company (AOC) discovered the Dorra field in 1967 as then manager of offshore operations for both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Kuwait recently contracted Royal Dutch Shell to conduct seismological surveys of its offshore fields where Dorra lies.
Royal Dutch Shell recently won a US$700-million contract from Iran to develop offshore gas under a buy-back agreement.
"The Dutch Shell contract with Iran should also be considered when looking at the Dorra situation," said another oil expert asking, "How do you think Iran knew exactly where to drill in the field?"