Saudi- Kuwaiti sea border agreement signed
Saudi Arabia-Kuwait, Politics, 7/3/2000

The governments of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on Sunday signed an agreement on sea borders demarcation. This agreement would open the door before reaching an agreement with Iran to divide the storage of natural gas and oil under the waters of the Gulf among the three countries, Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The Kuwaiti TV said on Sunday that the Saudi foreign minister prince Saudi al-Faisal and the Kuwaiti foreign minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah signed the agreement in the second day of the visit carried out by the Saudi crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to Kuwait.

The Kuwaiti news agency KUNA said that the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and the ruler of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah attended the signing ceremony. KUNA quoted the Saudi foreign minister as saying following the signing of the agreement saying: " we have agreed to end division of the neutral area and we have finished today ( Sunday) demarcation of the sea borders."

Since several weeks the two states have been trying to demarcate the continental rift where al-Darra gas field is situated. A field which is also the cause of a dispute with Iran. The first round of negotiations was held by the beginning of June in Saudi Arabia and ended without reaching any results. The conflict raised over al-Darra gas field which is situated in an area which Iran also demands to have control on. This happened once again in May when each of al-Riyadh and Kuwait protested against excavation and exploration works carried out by Tehran in this field. Later, Iran stopped these excavation works.

Al-Faisal added " there is a joint stand between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with neighboring Iran. The question of border demarcation with Iran will be settled in the same peaceful and amicable ways we had settled matters used to be suspended in the past."

To this effect, the oil-specialized magazine " Middle East economic survey" estimated gas reserves in al-Darra field at 21 billion cubic meters and of a daily production of 18.45 million cubic meters.

However, the visit of the Saudi crown prince to Kuwait was scheduled June 12. It was postponed for the first time because of the visit of the Yemeni President to Saudi Arabi and for the second time for the death of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait agreed to divide the huge oil wealth in this area but the sea borders were left without demarcation.

The border agreement between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait came two weeks after signing a border demarcation treaty between Yemen and Saudi Arabia to put an end to the conflict which ended the deterioration of relations between the two states lasted for decades.

Previous Stories:
  Kuwait: Demarcation of borders with Saudi Arabia is a matter of timing   (6/13/2000)
  Ruler of Kuwaiti gets a message from Saudi crown prince   (6/8/2000)
  Saudi - Kuwaiti talks on sea border demarcation   (6/7/2000)

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