In late March, Tehran said the agreement violated ‘previously established agreements,’ adding that it’reserves the right to exploit’ the field.
Despite Iranian opposition, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will develop a disputed gas field, while pushing Tehran to engage in dialogue.
The Gulf allies will honor their deal to develop the Arash/Dorra marine gas field, which Iran has called “illegal,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
It stated that “Saudi Arabia and… Kuwait confirm their right to use natural resources in this area and would continue to endeavor to uphold what was agreed upon.”
However, the two countries also extended a new invitation to Iran to negotiate over the gas field’s boundary, which has been the subject of a decades-long dispute.
“As a single negotiating party, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Kuwait reiterate their offer to the Islamic Republic of Iran to hold these conversations,” the statement stated.
In late March, Tehran stated that the agreement violated “previously established agreements,” and that it “reserves its right to exploit” the field.
Unsuccessful discussions
As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy costs have remained high.
The dispute over the field dates back to the 1960s, when Iran and Kuwait handed offshore concessions to the erstwhile Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the precursor to BP, and Royal Dutch Shell, respectively.
In the northern part of the field, where recoverable reserves are believed to be around 220 billion dollars, the two concessions overlapped.
For many years, Iran and Kuwait have failed to reach an agreement over their disputed maritime border area, which is rich in natural gas.
The drilling of the field by Iran in 2001 prompted Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to sign a maritime border agreement in which they agreed to cooperatively utilize the offshore zone’s natural resources.
The field is expected to generate one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, plus 84,000 barrels of condensate per day, Kuwait stated in March.
Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia are ongoing.
Iran unilaterally terminated discussions with regional foe Saudi Arabia this month, according to a news site linked with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
Riyadh and Tehran have expressed hope that the talks will help reduce years of tensions, but they have downplayed hopes for a major breakthrough.
The two nations severed diplomatic ties in 2016 after demonstrators stormed Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran in response to the Sunni-majority kingdom’s death of a prominent Shia religious leader.
Following Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Riyadh backed Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of punitive sanctions on the country. It also accused Iran of being behind a significant attack on its oil infrastructure in 2019, which Tehran denied.
Riyadh and Tehran have expressed hope that the talks will help reduce years of tensions, but they have downplayed hopes for a major breakthrough.
In Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement since 2014, the two countries are likewise on opposing sides.
The first round of covert discussions, held in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in April 2020, hinted at a possible thaw between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
