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Prepared by: A. Mohieddin Saeed, political analyst

Abstract:
Amid indications of a clear rapprochement in Gulf-Iranian relations, the disputed “Durrah Field” file was raised between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on one side and Iran on the other side. It raises many questions, whether about the future of Gulf-Iranian relations, or about the scenarios proposed for the future of this renewed old conflict, and the position of international law on them.

Al-Durra Field was discovered in 1967 and is located in the north of the Arabian Gulf in the form of a water triangle, extending from the bottom of the tri-border point shared between Kuwait, Iraq and Iran, and extending southwards, with the largest part of it facing the coast Kuwait and the Kuwaiti-Saudi neutral zone, and a common part of the field is located with On the Iranian side, there have been many and varied stations to raise the issue in different years, with varying degrees of uproar around it. The first stage was in the sixties, when Iran granted the right to exploration and exploitation to the British Iranian Oil Company, while Kuwait granted the right to exploration and exploitation to the British Iranian Oil Company It was a franchise for Royal Dutch Shell, and the two franchises overlapped In the northern part of Al Dorra field.

Also among the points of disagreement was the announcement that Riyadh and Kuwait had reached an agreement regarding the maritime borders between them in 2000, and Al-Khafji Company granted the development and production right to Shell Company in 2012, and 2015 witnessed a dispute It was also a turning point in the history of the Dorra field, when Iran announced a project To develop it; It became the subject of a dispute between Tehran and Kuwait, and the latter had agreed on June 7, 2006 with the Saudi authorities to develop the Dorra gas field to produce about 600 million cubic feet of gas within about And four years, and it was agreed to be divided equally between the two countries.

On August 26, 2015, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry summoned the charge d’affaires of the Iranian Embassy in protest against Iran’s proposal to develop the Durra oil field, according to the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry. The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said that it had submitted a memorandum of protest due to… Reports indicated that the National Iranian Oil Company issued a bulletin on oil investment opportunities. In Iran, including investment opportunities in parts of the extension of the Dorra field, located in the overlapping marine area that has not been demarcated between Kuwait and Iran.