Iran demands 'equal footing' with Kuwaiti and Saudi plans to drill for gas in Gulf
Three Gulf countries battle over the Arash/Durra field. / bne IntelliNews

By Newsbase Gulf bureau September 10, 2024

A senior Iranian military figure on 10 September called on 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/Durra 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, Tasnim reported.

Pursuing the development of the Arash gas field is “more necessary than you know bread and butter,” said Brigadier General Abdolreza Abed, who runs Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters (KAA). KAA is the powerful economic arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is sanctioned by the US.

Abed said that when it came to the Arash gas field, “Iran and Kuwait are on an equal footing and have equal interests.”

“There is no reason for them (Kuwait) to take a back seat to Iran in this gas field," he added.

He again announced that the KAA was geared to develop the Arash gas field, a direct challenge to the joint Saudi-Kuwaiti projects earmarked for the offshore site.



“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,” Abed said.

The CEO said the Kuwaiti side had already teamed up with Saudi Arabia in developing the Arash field. “We should not just sit back and watch,” he pointed out.

Earlier in May, Abed said, “40% of Arash belonged to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” rejecting 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, but despite Kuwait's insistence, the Islamic Republic has not asked any foreign independent company for exploration operations and has not handed over the result of the IOOC’s study to the two other claimants to Arash/Durra.

Abed said at the time that “Iran's lack of determination” to tap into Arash’s resources prompted Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to start exploiting the gas field.

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.

In July 2023, then-Kuwaiti oil minister Saad al-Barrak asked Iran to validate its claim to the field by demarcating its maritime borders. But later in the same month, he said Kuwait would start drilling and begin production at the gas field without waiting for border demarcation with Iran.

The Arash/Durra gas field is located in the Persian Gulf. The field is estimated to hold 20 trillion cubic feet (566bn cubic metres) of natural gas and 310mn barrels of gas condensate in its proven reserves. Assessments suggest that $7bn 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, every now and then, calls for “technical and legal talks” to hash out the decades-long dispute.