Iran plans to start development work on Arash oil and gas field

Nicosia, June 10 : The Manager of the National Iranian Oil Company NIOC) Seifollah Jashnsaz has said that NIOC will start development work on the ffshore Arash oil and gas field.

The massive Arash field is shared by Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where it is nown as Dorra, and is a contested area between Tehran and Kuwait.

The Arash/Dorra field gas reserves are believed to be in the region of 20 tcf.

Jashnsaz has said that work will proceed despite the maritime dispute with Kuwait.

NIOC's Managing Director repeated the Iranian position that half the field elonged to Iran, while Kuwait claimed a bigger share than 50 per cent.

NIOC's estimates Iran's share of the field as amounting to 42 million barrels of crude oil and 65.5 million barrels of condensate.

Last January, the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah had expressed the hope that the maritime border dispute with Iran would be resolved soon.

The dispute goes back to 1960's when Iran and Kuwait awarded offshore concessions to the former Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Co., now part of BP, and Royal Dutch Shell that overlapped in the northern part of the Arash/Dorra field.

ANI