Kuwait threatens to disrupt Basra ports... and encroaches on an oil field equivalent to Iraq's produ

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[size=52]Kuwait threatens to disrupt Basra ports... and encroaches on an oil field equivalent to Iraq's production in 3 years[/size]

[size=45]Video clips circulating in Iraq documenting the Kuwaiti authorities’ drilling work in the huge “Al-Nukhdha” oil field on the border between the two countries have sparked great controversy, while parliamentary circles and economic experts have called on the Iraqi government to stop what they described as “violations” of the country’s sovereignty.[/size]
[size=45]The maritime dispute that appears from time to time is escalating between Kuwait and Iraq, and its roots go back many years, as it is mainly related to the “territorial waters” section located after point 162, which is considered a territorial sea because it is still not clearly demarcated.[/size]
[size=45]Recently, the Kuwait Petroleum Company announced that it “discovered a huge oil reserve in the Al-Nukhdha field east of Kuwait’s Failaka Island, with reserves estimated at about 3.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent,” noting that “the reserves of the new discovery are equivalent to the country’s total production in three years.”[/size]
[size=45]Light oil[/size]
[size=45]From an Iraqi perspective, MP Ghassan Al-Eidani, a member of the parliamentary oil and energy committee, says, “This Kuwaiti violation is the second after the Dorra field, and represents a clear violation of the Iraqi economic zone,” explaining that “Kuwait is carrying out drilling operations in accordance with an Amiri decision issued in 2014 that allowed the oil company to conduct explorations in this area, while the border area between the two countries is still not fully demarcated.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Eidani confirmed that “the estimated area of ​​the Al-Nukhdha field is approximately 96 square kilometers and the reserves it contains are 3 billion barrels of light oil.”[/size]
[size=45]He explained that “the field also contains 5.1 trillion cubic feet of gas, which is equivalent to about 3 billion and 200 million barrels of oil,” while pointing out that “these violations by the Kuwaiti side against Iraq’s interests will not stop unless there are serious moves to put an end to them, which is what the House of Representatives has begun to do by forming a committee to look into this sensitive and important file.”[/size]
[size=45]In a press conference held in Basra Governorate, a number of tribal sheikhs in the governorate expressed their deep concern over the ongoing violations by Kuwait on Iraqi lands, territorial waters and oil fields, while warning of the deterioration of the situation if these violations continue. They also called for immediate measures to stop Kuwaiti violations of Iraq’s sovereignty.[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Oil has not commented on the issue until this report was written, despite several press questions being directed to its spokesman, Asim Jihad, due to the importance of the ministry’s role and the demands directed to it to stop the Kuwaiti actions.[/size]
[size=45]“Al-Nakhoda” is a word of Persian origin derived from the word “Nakhuda” which refers to the captain of a wooden ship, and is used in the ports of the Arabian Gulf and Iraq in general.[/size]
[size=45]demarcation[/size]
[size=45]For his part, academic and oil expert, Nabil Al-Marsoumi, says, “The fields shared between Iraq and Kuwait were and still are bilateral and a source of dispute and turmoil, as the main problem between the two countries has been the demarcation of the borders since 1993.”[/size]
[size=45]“Most of these fields have common structures extending on both sides and dating back to the Cretaceous period, meaning that the physical properties of the rocks containing crude oil are identical between the fields,” Al-Marsoumi added, explaining that “Kuwait has sought to explore its offshore fields for a long time, and Shell and the Kuwait Oil Company drilled some wells in the 1960s and 1980s, but the wells in the Kuwaiti offshore sector have only achieved some small, non-commercial oil discoveries.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, "Kuwait did not benefit from these explorations because the result was that the geological structure of the fields was basically monoclinic and disorganized, meaning that the sediments slope deeper towards the east, and this does not provide any major reservoirs to hold oil and gas accumulations."[/size]
[size=45]Parliament is moving[/size]
[size=45]In continuation of the ongoing escalation, the House of Representatives is heading to question the Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, through an oral question directed by the representative of the Rights Movement, Saud Al-Saadi, to know the ministry’s procedures in proving Iraq’s right to oil discoveries in its territorial waters, including the Al-Nukhdha field, considering that “Kuwait has confiscated these economic areas from Iraq unilaterally after the Amiri Decree (317) in 2014.”[/size]
[size=45]The MP also called on “the Minister of Oil to state the ownership of the Jamal Tuwaina (Al-Durra) oil field, located in territorial waters within the shared maritime borders, and whether this field belongs to Iraq or Kuwait?” So the controversy became about two fields, after the first was the most prominent.[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the last attempts to defuse the dispute between Iraq and Kuwait over the demarcation of the borders were in 2012, when an agreement was concluded between them to regulate navigation in Khor Abdullah, making it a navigation corridor instead of being affiliated with Iraq, while giving Kuwait the right to manage and operate boat patrols in it.[/size]
[size=45]But that agreement, despite the optimism about it at that time from the Iraqi side, did not result in a demarcation of the borders that satisfied both countries, because Kuwait considered the transformation of Khor Abdullah into a navigational passage a fundamental step to protect its sovereignty and develop its northern region, at a time when Iraq viewed it as a sea outlet with economic benefit, similar to the rest of the passages.[/size]
[size=45]Iraqi water[/size]
[size=45]Commenting on what is happening, the maritime affairs specialist and member of the Iraqi Mariners Syndicate, Ali Al-Aqabi, believes that “the Iraqi maritime economic zone is international waters under the control of Iraq and is adjacent to neighboring countries and its borders are not yet demarcated as Kuwaiti waters, but according to Amiri Decree 317, Kuwait claims that this area is Kuwaiti waters,” indicating that “the so-called Al-Nukhadha oil field is within an Iraqi area that is even established in the United Nations maritime maps and no country has the right to control it or conduct any economic activity in it because it is Iraqi international waters that it shares with Kuwait for one reason, which is that it is adjacent to the coast, but it does not have the right to monopolize it.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “Kuwait’s announcement of oil and gas exploration in this area is an encroachment on the area because it is Iraqi waters and Kuwait has no right to conduct such activity there or build an oil platform there. This encroachment is a breach of the International Maritime Convention approved by the United Nations and the Maritime Organization in 1982,” stressing that “the solution to these encroachments is to form a specialized committee of experts in demarcating maritime borders and to approach Kuwait through diplomatic channels to stop the Kuwaiti tide and what was issued in decisions before 2003 and in 2014 because these decisions were rejected by the Federal Supreme Court in Iraq and obligated the Iraqi government to do so.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Aqabi considered that “Kuwait’s reliance on a UN resolution or the previous regime’s signature on such resolutions is an unacceptable excuse for the Iraqi government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they must announce this officially,” indicating that “the Iraqi maritime borders cannot be taken lightly because Iraq’s concession of any nautical mile will allow Kuwait to control our international waters and succeed in its efforts to find a base point on which to build its new borders and officially establish them.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that "Iraq's silence will make it close its maritime borders because the distance that Kuwait will control according to the new points will be in the depth of our international territorial waters, and this means the complete closure of all the ports of Umm Qasr in Basra and the destruction of Iraqi maritime trade," considering that "what is happening is a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and it must control this border area."[/size]
[size=45]He explained that “the silence regarding Kuwait’s violations of our land and sea borders is due to the timid policies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from which we have not witnessed any public action regarding such fateful issues,” adding that “this silence is either intentional or the ministry is forced to do so due to American pressures aimed at Kuwait’s expansion at the expense of Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]Bribes to officials[/size]
[size=45]It is worth mentioning that about 3 months ago, Member of Parliament Alia Nassif said in a televised interview that “Kuwait has started a second page of bribery for Iraqi officials, noting that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a complete failure in national files,” at a time when the representative of the Sadiqoun bloc, Adi Awad, attacked the government’s silence regarding Kuwait’s drilling of a new well at a degree (zero) on Iraqi territory.[/size]
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