Kuwait and Iraq agreed in principle on the sharing of border oilfields to avoid any future claims by either side of “over-utilizing” the fields, Kuwait’s Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said today.
“A joint committee met a week ago and they’ve agreed in principle, we’ve signed it from the Kuwait side, they’ll be signing it maybe this week or next week,” Sheikh Ahmad told reporters in parliament.
The accord involves having a “unified international company to drill for oil,” Sheikh Ahmad said. IOCs are “to come and agree with both countries to drill at the same time, for the same field,” and the oil shared proportionately, he added.
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded his southern neighbour Kuwait in August 1990 after alleging that Kuwait’s northern fields -- Abdali, Bahra, Ratqa, Rawdhatain and Sabriyah -- were siphoning off Iraqi crude. Iraqi troops were ousted from Kuwait seven months later by a U.S.-led international coalition.
The agreement is “to avoid any future claims that one of these countries, either parties, is over-utilizing these kinds of joint fields,” Sheikh Ahmad said.
Kuwait is the fourth-biggest producer, along with the United Arab Emirates, in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and pumped 2.31 million barrels of oil a day in July, according to Bloomberg data.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fiona MacDonald in Kuwait at fmacdonald4@bloomberg.net
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