Saudi - Kuwaiti talks on sea border demarcation
Kuwait-Saudi Arabia, Politics, 6/7/2000

Saudi- Kuwaiti talks started on Tuesday in al-Riyadh in an attempt to reach an agreement between the two states to demarcate sea border.

The talks were opened by the Saudi minister of oil and mineral resources Ali al-Nueimi and his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah and then the meetings continued at the levels of experts.

Sheikh Saud, who arrived in al-Riyadh, heading a high ranking delegation, including officials and experts at the ministries of oil and foreign affairs, said that " demarcating Saudi- Kuwaiti sea borders " will be held in a fraternal and brotherly spirit, accepted by the two sides. He added " there are no differences between the two countries over this sort of matters."

A Kuwaiti source expected that Sheikh Saud will not sign a proposed agreement with al-Nueimi because the Saudi and Kuwaiti defense ministers, Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz and Sheikh Salem al-Sabah, respectively will meet shortly over border demarcation before tripartite meetings including representatives for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran.

Meantime, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA said that the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz will arrive in Kuwait next week at the invitation of the Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah to " hold bilateral consultation and coordination talks in political, economic and security areas."

A Kuwaiti source expected the two Arab states to coordinate their stances before meeting with Iran and to agree on the date of tripartite meeting, where it will be held in order to discuss the conflict over the area located to the north of the Arab Gulf waters.

On Sunday, Kuwait's foreign minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said the meeting between the two oil ministers "aims at drawing a formula to demarcate the borders of the sea continental rift," which is rich in oil and gas, in which al-Durra gas field is situated.

However disputes over al-Durra field which is situated in a sea sector demanded also by Iran, erupted in May when both al-Riyadh and Kuwait protested against the drilling works carried out by the French- US Shloumberje company, on behalf of the Iranian side in January and stopped on May 13.

The specialized Middle East economic Survey weekly ( MEES) estimates gas reserves in al-Durra field to 21 billion cubic meters with a daily production estimated between 18- 45 million cubic meters.

Worthy mentioning Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had demarcated their land borders in the " neutral zone" and also agreed to share the big oil wealth in this area. But they have not demarcated their sea borders.

Previous Stories:
  Beginning Saudi and Kuwaiti negotiations for remarking the Bahraini borders between the 2 countries   (6/6/2000)
  Kuwait - Saudi Arabia to demarcate of sea borders   (6/5/2000)
  Emir of Kuwait gets a message from Saudi King   (4/17/2000)

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