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Iran people have undeniable right to gas field disputed with Kuwait: IRGC commander

Commander of IRGC’s Khatam ul-Anbiya construction arm Brigadier General Abdorreza Abed

A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says that Iran will never forfeit its rights to a disputed gas field located in waters between the country and Kuwait.

Brigadier General Abdorreza Abed, who leads IRGC’s Khatam ul-Anbiya construction arm, said on Tuesday that building out the Arash gas field is “a must” for Iran as the country views it as a shared field.  

General Abed said that tapping the resources of energy reserves that are shared with neighboring countries is an indisputable right of the Iranian people which the government can never ignore.

He referred to news that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have already started development works on Arash gas field, which is known in Kuwait as Durra, adding that Iran’s Oil Ministry should speed up projects for exploration and extraction of resources in the gas field.

The comments came a day after the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a grouping of regional Arab countries, issued a statement to support Kuwait’s unilateral claims about the gas field.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected the statement while reiterating that Tehran is open to negotiations with Kuwait to sort out issues related to the gas field.

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia announced in early 2022 that they had reached an agreement to jointly produce 1 billion cubic feet (28.3 million cubic meters) per day and 84,000 barrels per day of condensates from Durra.

That caused Iranian Oil Ministry to announce that the country will soon install a drilling jacket at the field to resume development operations that had been halted in 2001 after Kuwait threatened to lodge a complaint against Iran in international courts.

Some estimates suggest that more than 70% of the resources of the disputed gas field, which is believed to contain up to 60 trillion cubic feet (1.7 trillion cubic meters) of gas, lie in waters claimed by Iran under the dispute with Kuwait.


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