The Oil and Energy committee of Iraq’s Council of Representatives announced on Sunday that there are 10 oil fields stradling the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border that are waiting to be demarcated, according to AKnews.

Committee member Furat al-Sharei told the agency that the oil will be extracted from these fields after finding joint mechanisms between the countries. There are also ten fields shared in common with Iran that are waiting for demarcation before extraction can begin.

The problem of the common fields can be resolved by developing legal mechanisms.

The Kuwaiti government denied trespassing on joint oil fields with Iraq last July, accusing unnamed parties of trying to destabilize relations between the two countries.

(Source: AKnews)

During an official visit to the State of Kuwait on 23 – 25 November, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq, Mr. Martin Kobler, was received by the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H.H. Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, in the country’s capital, Kuwait City.

SRSG Kobler also met with the Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al-Sabah, and the Ambassador of Iraq in Kuwait, Mr. Mohammed Hussein Bahr al-Ulum. He held fruitful meetings with a number of interlocutors, including the Speaker of the Kuwait National Assembly, Mr. Jassem Al-Kharafi, and the Deputy Chairman of the Kuwaiti Compensation Commission, Ms. Sabikah K. Al-Abdul-Razzaq.

“I had the opportunity to discuss a range of vital issues that are of concern to both Kuwait and Iraq. I felt there is a lot of goodwill on both sides to move forward and to assure good neighborly relations between the countries. And this is exactly what the UN is hoping to achieve. I look forward to working with both governments to this end,” SRSG Kobler said.

The visit to Kuwait marked Mr. Kobler’s first in his official capacity as the Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.

(Source: UNAMI)

AKnews reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accepted an official invitation from the Kuwaiti Prime Minister Naser al-Mouhammed to visit the country in the coming days to discuss the outstanding issues between the two countries.

Among the issues causing tensions between the two neighbours are shared oil fields, land and water border demarcations, and the controversial Mubarak Port on Kuwait’s Boubiyan Island.

Iraq is also criticizing Kuwait for its support of the UN’s Chapter 7 sanctions that were imposed on Iraq after the Second Gulf War in 1991. Kuwait demands reparations for the Iraqi invasion, disclosure of the fate of Kuwaiti MIAs, and the return of the remains of Kuwaitis POWs.

Without Kuwait’s approval, it is not likely that the United Nations Security Council lift the Chapter 7 sanctions.

(Source: AKnews)

This article was written by Ahmad Wahid, and was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net. It is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Thousands of Iraqis working across five ports in Basra fear they will lose their livelihoods if Kuwait presses ahead with plans to build one of the Gulf’s biggest harbours.

There are worries that once the 1.1 billion US dollar Mubarak port is completed, Iraq stands to lose up to 60 per cent of maritime traffic – mostly the larger cargo ships that already struggle to dock in Basra’s Umm Qasr, the country’s only deep-water port.

Work has started on a new port at Al-Faw close to Umm Qasr, but in May this year, the Kuwaitis began construction of the Mubarak port just over the border from the site.

The close proximity of the two developments has angered Iraqi politicians, workers and tribal leaders, who have pledged action against the Kuwaiti government.

Iraq’s transport ministry announced the 1.6 billion dollar port project for Al-Faw in 2005, with an Italian construction firm winning the contract to build the facility. Construction only got under way in 2010, with the first stage of the development planned to be complete by 2014.

The finished project, with total costs estimated to reach six billion dollars by the completion date of 2028, includes not only the port itself but infrastructure such as train lines linking Europe to the Gulf.

Iraqis say that once the new port opens, they will be as hard-hit economically as when the country was subject to sanctions in the 1990s because of the invasion of Kuwait.

In its latest quarterly report, Kuwait Energy has issued an update on its Iraqi operations:

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced its intention to offer 12 exploration blocks covering various locations in Iraq.

Technical data for each block was made available for purchase in September 2011 along with a preliminary Exploration, Development and Production Service Contract (EDPSC).

A workshop to address potential participants’ concerns is planned for early December 2011.

Bidding dates are planned to be on March 7th and 8th 2012.

Kuwait Energy is carrying out preliminary, technical, evaluations of the blocks and screening potential partners for further cooperation.

In 2010, KEC won the bid to develop the Siba and Mansuriya fields in Iraq – additional 2P WI reserves of 141.9mmboe were booked post the contract signing in June 2011.

(Source: Kuwait Energy)

The United Nations Compensation Commission has made another $1,038,375,281 available to the Government of Kuwait for distribution to eight successful claimants in compensation for Iraq’s 1990 invasion.

This payment leaves approximately $18 billion outstanding to six compensation awards.

Successful claims are paid with funds drawn from the United Nations Compensation Fund, which is funded by a percentage of the proceeds generated by the export sales of Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products.

This percentage was set at 5 per cent under Security Council resolution 1483 (2003), and reaffirmed in a number of subsequent resolutions, most recently under Security Council resolution 1956 (2010).

(Source: United Nations)

Minister Ali al-Dabbagh, Iraqi Government Spokesman, was interviewed by Padraig O’Hannelly for Iraq Business News at last week’s Iraq Mining 2011 conference in London. In this first part of the interview, Dr al-Dabbagh discusses the controversial Mubarak port:

Iraq Business News: Firstly, Dr Ali al-Dabbagh, thank you for agreeing to speak to us. I’d like to start with a question regarding the Mubarak al-Kabir [Kabeer] port project in Kuwait: There have been some reports in recent days that that whole issue has been resolved, that it’s not going to affect shipping into Iraq and so on. Can you confirm Iraq’s position on the project?

Dr Ali al-Dabbagh: The Government of Iraq has not yet given its final opinion about the Mubarak port. We do feel that there is a negative affect on our navigation lines, and the issue briefly is that the strait, which is 8km wide, is split in half – half to Kuwait and half to Iraq – as per Resolution 833 of the United Nations. The Iraqi side is very shallow, and not suitable for shipping; the Kuwaiti side has a [section] which is suitable for navigation, and it is only used by Iraqi vessels crossing to Umm Qasr. Kuwaitis never use this side.

The [UN] resolution gives the right to Iraq to navigate through the Kuwaiti water without paying any fees and without raising any Kuwait flags, so we have the right to use that passage, and any construction in that part we feel is going to obstruct our navigation. And because Iraq has very limited access to the Gulf we feel that is going to create a very high negative affect on our future lines for navigation, so we have asked the Kuwaitis to wait until we get the full information that this is not going to affect us.

Kuwait say they are making the construction on ‘zero low tide’, which means there is no projection of the construction in the water. We want to be sure that there is no … negative influence, neither environmentally, commercially, nor on navigation or trading. This port is being built to serve Iraq, because the other side of Boubiyan Island is not facing to Kuwait, it is facing to the Faw Peninsula, and in order for this port to work you need to maintain a good relation with the people who benefit out of this, which means Iraqis in this case. Without having a proper arrangement with Iraq I think we can’t accept this construction unless we are sure that this is not going to harm us. We have the full right to be worried about this issue, and we don’t want to create any problems to Kuwait, but we maintain the full right to protect our interests, and the interests of the Iraqi people.

According to a report from Associated Press, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (pictured) says that a dispute over a planned Kuwaiti port has been resolved, and that the facility will not disrupt Iraqi shipping in the Persian Gulf.

The minister said that a technical review showed that the Mubarak port on Boubiyan Island “won’t affect our navigation,” as had been feared.

In an interview late on Sunday, Zebari said the review “removed the fears of the Mubarak port.”

The Construction of the facility off Kuwait’s coast raised new tensions between the two nations this summer.

Iraq initially objected to the port and feared the country would be cut off from the lucrative Gulf shipping trade just as it regains its economic footing.

(Source: Associated Press)