Durra gas: Old dispute between Iran and Kuwait being raised again

Eslam Mohamed

The dispute over the ownership of the Durra gas field has renewed tensions between Iran and Kuwait, as Tehran claims that it has a share in the field, which is located near the coast of Kuwait, and it refuses to recognize international law in this case.

Kuwaiti statements

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Saad Al-Barrak stated in a media interview that his country would start drilling and producing gas from the field without waiting for the demarcation of the maritime borders with Iran, while the Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji confirmed that his country might put on its agenda “securing its rights and interests, extraction and exploration of these resources, and it will not bear any loss of its rights,” according to the state-run Iranian news agency IRNA.

The extractable reserves from this field are estimated at about 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Over the years, Iran and Kuwait have held a series of talks to resolve the dispute over the gas field and to demarcate the maritime borders between the two countries, but none of these negotiations led to tangible results.

This offshore field sparked disputes not only between Iran and Kuwait, but also the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which prompted the states of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to assert that the wealth of this region is their right only, and Riyadh called on Tehran to resume dialogue on the distribution of the field’s wealth.

Old dispute

The Durra field is one of the oldest files of dispute between Kuwait and Iran, as negotiations began about it in the 1960s. Despite that, the two countries have not reached a solution regarding the demarcation of the borders between them, despite repeated rounds of negotiations.

The situation had already reached the brink of tension between Kuwait and Iran because of this field in 2001, when Iran at that time began drilling in it, so Kuwait and Saudi Arabia rushed to demarcate their maritime borders and agree to jointly develop the field.

In 2003, Kuwait announced that it might submit the dispute to international arbitration, but Iran refused arbitration because it refused to refer to the law of the sea approved by the United Nations.

In 2015, Tehran announced the launch of a project to develop the extension of the field, and the head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) recently announced that Iran will start drilling in the field, which it calls by a historical Persian name, Arash, in preparation for starting drilling and carrying out the necessary studies.

The legal basis for the dispute is based on the foundations of demarcation of the maritime borders, as Tehran desires demarcation starting from its islands to the Kuwaiti mainland, contrary to the law of the sea, which recognizes the demarcation of the border from the midline between the two coasts, which is what Kuwait desires pursuant to the law of the sea.

In 2019, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the joint Kuwaiti-Saudi field, and the two countries officially announced that they are one negotiating party in the face of the Iranian side.

Kuwait is the main beneficiary of the development of the field, as Saudi Arabia has a large production of gas, unlike Kuwait, and in the event that production begins, Kuwait will provide part of the quantity it needs, bearing in mind that the first production of this field may take years, and Kuwait’s needs will increase over time, so it wants to expedite a resolution to the crisis.

As for Iran, it occupies the second place in gas reserves in the world, but because of the sanctions and the reluctance of international companies to invest in it, Tehran suffers from a major crisis in natural gas, and it is not expected that it will be resolved by simply obtaining a small percentage of the Durra field if Kuwait and Saudi Arabia agree to involve Iran. Therefore, the Iranian position is primarily political and cannot be classified under economic motives only, but rather it has regional and international dimensions.

This conflict comes to limit the great optimism associated with the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation, puts a test to measure the success of diplomacy in resolving problems between Iran and the Arabs, and raises concern about the potential negative effects of this dispute on the region.

Framework of understanding

The Saudi-Iranian reconciliation was not a reconciliation between two states, but rather a framework for understanding between two competing regional powers, meaning that the scope and impact of the agreement includes the entire region. Therefore, the statement of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the Kingdom and Kuwait are considered one negotiating party in confronting the Iranian side.