Kuwait: Kuwait and Iraq have reached an initial agreement on sharing border oilfields and to allow an international oil company to develop them, Kuwait's oil minister said Wednesday.
Shaikh Ahmad Al Abdullah Al Sabah told reporters the agreement called for an international oil company to drill for oil in those fields for both countries, adding no company had been chosen yet.
He said both countries had agreed on the pact in principle. "We have signed it from Kuwait's side. They [Iraqis] will be signing it maybe this week or next week," he said.
When Iraq invaded its neighbour 20 years ago, Baghdad accused Kuwait of stealing billions of dollars worth of oil from these fields through horizontal drilling. Kuwait denied the charge. The pact will serve "to avoid any future claims that one of these countries ... is over utilising" the joint fields, Shaikh Ahmad said.
Several fields straddle the desert border that was demarcated by the UN after the 1991 Gulf War that liberated Kuwait.
Kuwait resumed ties with Iraq since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussain, who ordered the invasion of Kuwait. Shaikh Ahmad said he was satisfied with current oil prices.
"We do appreciate what is happening in the international market and the international economy and we are satisfied with the current prices," he said, adding he expected prices to "pick up" partly because of high demand in winter.
The minister said the country's highest oil policy body, the Supreme Petroleum Council, will "finalise" a much-delayed plan to build a 615,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery in Kuwait.
