Tehran Wants Maritime Border Deal With Kuwait & Saudi For Dorra Gas Field.

Ending a two-day visit to Kuwait, Rawhani on June 6 told reporters Iran hoped to sign a "final deal" with its Persian Gulf neighbour Kuwait this year on a decades-old dispute over their maritime border in a rich offshore gas field. He said: "There are still issues over which we have not reached a final solution. But I believe that the largest portion related to the continental shelf is on the verge of being decided. I hope that we will reach a final deal during this year".

Rowhani was speaking after talks with Kuwaiti Prime Minister Shaikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. The dispute goes back to the 1960s when Iran and Kuwait awarded offshore concessions to the former Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Co. (AIPC), now part of BP, and Royal Dutch/Shell which overlap in the northern part of the Dorra gas field. Rawhani did not mention Saudi Arabia, which also has a share in the field as it lies within part of its territorial waters of the Divided Zone.

Recoverable gas reserves at the Dorra field are estimated at 7.4 TCF (over 200 BCM). The field also contains a major volume of condensates. The field has the potential to produce up to 600 million cubic feet per day of natural gas (600 MCF/day). A sustainable gas production level of 400 MCF/d for a period of 30 years has been recommended by one of the foreign companies wanting to develop the field. This excludes the condensates.

Kuwait is rich in crude oil but badly needs the Dorra field because it lacks sufficient supplies of natural gas. In March, Kuwait and Iran signed a $7 billion, 25-year contract under the state-owned National Iranian Gas Export Co. (NIGEC) will supply the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) with 9 MCM/day (300 MCF/day) of gas by pipeline to be built over shallow waters. Delivery is to begin in 2007.