Mohsen Khojste Mehr’s promise about oil fields was not fulfilled

According to Energy Press, it was in the middle of last year that the CEO of the National Oil Company made a statement about joint oil fields and said, “Currently, there is no unassigned joint oil field between Iran and Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, considering the restoration of relations between the two The country has started preparatory work for bilateral cooperation. There is complete preparation for the start of drilling in Arash joint oil field, and we have approved significant resources for the implementation of the development plan of this field in the board of directors of National Iranian Oil Company, and when the conditions are ready, we will start drilling in Arash field. ”

The talks that were accompanied by the reaction of the Kuwaiti authorities and Saad al-Barak, Kuwait’s oil minister, said: “We categorically reject Iran’s activities around the Al-Dura offshore gas field.” Al-Dura field is the natural wealth of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and no other party has any rights in it until the demarcation of maritime boundaries is determined. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia completely agree on Iran being a negotiating party.

After these statements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted again and the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanani, said: “We are following up on this issue in the framework of bilateral discussions with the officials of the Kuwaiti government.” This issue, along with delimitation of maritime boundaries, has been one of the issues discussed by Iran and Kuwait. “Islamic Republic of Iran has always been interested in issues related to maritime boundaries and exploitation of common hydrocarbon resources, taking into account common interests and the principle of good neighborliness with all neighbors, including Kuwait.”

In December last year, at the end of the 44th session of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council in Doha, Qatar, the member states reiterated their claims regarding the Arash gas field case. At the end of this meeting, the participants claimed in a statement that the ownership of the joint Arash (Al-Dura) gas field belongs to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and only these two countries have the right to exploit its resources.

Also, in February, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia issued a joint statement at the end of the visit of Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait to Riyadh, in a part of which, the two countries strongly agreed on the content of the previous statement of the two countries, once again on the exclusive right of the two countries. The country insisted on exploiting the Dare (Arash) oil and gas field.

The reason for the importance of Arash field development for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran is the increasing need for gas and successive energy crises. Of course, the development of this gas field affects regional relations more than it is related to the global liquefied natural gas market; That is, its impact on the global gas and LNG market will be insignificant, and all its production will be absorbed in the domestic electricity and energy sector of each of the three countries.

According to estimates, the resources of this field range from 60 trillion cubic feet to 10-13 trillion cubic feet and 300 million barrels of oil. Production estimates also vary and range from 800 million to 1 billion cubic feet per day and 84,000 barrels per day.