Iran claims share in Arash gas field

Iranian lawmaker Hadi Beiginejad has reacted to recent remarks by Kuwaiti and Saudi officials that Iran has no rights in the Arash gas field, saying that Iran has a 40% share in the field. 

“Iran's 40% share in the Arash joint field cannot be ignored and this right of Iran cannot be hidden,” Beiginejad told Fars News. 

He was responding to recent statements by Kuwaiti and Saudi officials saying that Iran has no share in the field and it should start talks over demarcating the border between Iran and Kuwait. 

The lawmaker rejected this allegation, underlining that the Arash joint gas field is located next to Esfandiar, Forozan and Soroush fields on a border line and Iran has a share in all these fields.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) has recently quoted a Saudi official as saying that the natural resources of the Arash field, which is known as Al Durra in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, solely belong to the two Arab countries and that Iran should accept the demarcation of the borderline without any claims to the disputed field. 

Beiginejad called on the Saudis to respect the rights of their neighbors. “Instead of these comments, the Saudi authorities should observe the principle of good neighborliness in their relations with their neighbors and respect the rights of their neighbors,” he suggested. 

He added, “If we haven't started investing in the Arash field yet, it is because this field has a quarter of a phase of the South Pars oil and gas field and it is expected that 20 thousand barrels of oil and 7 million cubic meters of gas to be extracted from the Arash field every day.”

He asked the Supreme National Security Council and the Presidential Legal Office to follow up on the Arash field issue from a legal point of view and not to allow this issue to turn into a bigger dispute between the two countries, and to pursue the rights of the Iranian nation from a legal point of view.

Earlier, Iranian MP Mostafa Nakhaei had said the Islamic Republic will not back down from its rights in the Arash gas field, underlining that Iran doubts that Saudi Arabia has a share in the field.

Nakhaei, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s Energy Committee, has criticized the Iranian authorities for not taking measures to exploit the gas field.

“We have many joint fields with neighboring countries, and in all development programs, attention and focus on joint fields have been emphasized. Our lack of planning and focus on the joint Arash gas field in all past years have caused competing countries to take action to develop it, but unfortunately, we have not done anything special about it,” he told parliamentary news agency ICANA.

He added, “About 60 years have passed since the discovery of this common field and there are very valuable gas resources, to some extent gas condensates and a little oil in it.”

Nakhaei pointed out, “In the past years, we should have resolved the disputes with competing countries in the joint Arash gas field and planned for its development, but unfortunately, we have not taken any action for this.”

“Despite all the mentioned conditions, it is clear that Iran will not neglect its interests in the Arash field in any way, and no official of the Islamic Republic of Iran has the right to turn a blind eye on or neglect the country's interests in this gas field and its development,” he said.

He also called for the diplomatic resolution of the disputes over the Arash gas field.